Fun With Pictures- where I (Amos Thomas) comically describe photographs with tongue-in-cheek!
Whether I am taking pictures around town or around the house, or elsewhere, most of the time it’s obvious when viewing my pictures what is happening. Other times I feel the need to elaborate on what is happening or comically describe what may have been going on! And yes, sometimes my imagination kicks in and will result in a very humorous story.
Fun With Pictures-Story of the Ghost Truck. (Posted December 27, 2024) This story includes elements of both fiction and nonfiction. See if you can decide what is real and when the truth been stretched!
The Shenandoah Beautification Committee unveiled their antique truck in mid-December 2014. Since then, town residents and visitors have fallen in love with it, posing for pictures with it while decorated for each of the holidays.
What most folks don’t know is the story behind the old 1949 Chevrolet pickup truck. What follows is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation for well over half-century.
It was late October and Emmett was traveling north on Route 12 (now days Highway 340). He had just come from Verbena Tavern after having enjoyed a wonderful supper. It had been a great day so far for him. Earlier in the day, he got a brand-new vehicle at Batman Pontiac. He was very proud of his new 1949 Chevrolet 3100 pickup truck, as he has wanted a pickup truck for a very long time. He had been saving his money for a while now. He had several part time jobs they include the Mill Store, the Union Store and the Shenandoah Bakery. They guys at Batman Pontiac had given him a very good deal on the truck.
He was heading down to Gay’s Amoco to top off his fuel tank before heading home for the night. Emmett had just entered the sharp curve coming thru Chaney Hollow when he spotted what look like a lady standing in the middle of the road. He immediately lockup his breaks, to avoid hitting her. The last sounds he heard before passing out were squealing tires, broken glass and trees coming down on the truck as it crashed thru the guard rail and landed on its top alongside of the roadway. Eyewitnesses at Red Roosters Snack Bar immediately ran to the crash site and were the first on scene and helped pull Emmett out of the mangled truck. Emmett, still in a daze told them about the lady that was in the road, but after combing the entire area, they could not find any trace of her. Emmett was pretty shaken up and asked that someone take him home, as he would come back tomorrow with a wrecker and remove what was left of his demolished pickup truck.
The next day Emmett arrived at the scene of the accident with a tow truck. They walked along the edge of the roadway, but something was wrong, they couldn’t find any trace of the truck! No broken glass, lights or any broken parts of the truck could be found. Even the trees and guard rail were in perfect condition. Even the skid marks where Emmett slammed on the breaks, was nowhere to be found. It was as if the wreck had never had happened. While looking around the tow truck driver did find pars of a torn dress! Word about this bizarre incident quickly spread around town.
There have been numerous wrecks that has happened in Chaney Hollow and most agree that this area is haunted! One story has a mother and her child were both killed in a terrible accident in Chaney Hollow. Some have seen the lady before and suggest that she is the ghost of the woman that has come back to try to find her baby.
It is said that on dark foggy nights, images of the old Chevrolet pickup truck will appear!
Notes about Story of the Ghost Truck.
My picture of the old truck at Big Gem Park was taken on March 8, 2022 after the old truck was painted white. It was cloudy, dark and a gloomy the day I took the picture. After looking at the pictures I had taken, I said boy, it looks kind of spooky and supernatural! That’s when I decided to create the story of the Ghost Truck. I used photo enhancing software to enhance the truck by blurring the background and erasing a sign in the window that said “To Be Continued.” The name of Emmett in my story came for My grandfather Clyde Emmett Thomas, but he never owned the truck. All business names were actual real business names that used to be in The Town of Shenandoah. As for if it really is a ghost truck, well you will have to decide that one for yourself!
From Shenandoah Newz Facebook page on December 14, 2024 Under a picture of the First Christmas Truck, Tracy Triggs indicated that the old truck used to be her father’s truck before going to Stepps Salvage yard.
Follow link below to learn how the first Christmas truck came to be.
Posted December 27, 2024
Hits 65.
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Fun With Pictures- High Tech Reindeer!
Did you know that Santa grazes some of his reindeer in the thick green grasses of the Shenandoah Valley? I was fortunate enough to get a picture of one of them while it was grazing up on Skyline Drive at Big Meadows. When I snapped this picture, I observed that it looked a little different than the other reindeer I have taken pictures of lately. Once I got home, I zoomed in real close to see what it had around its neck. I could see it had several devices attached to its collar to include an Apple Air Tag, a small box and an antenna. I zoomed in real close to read the small print on the box and could read it was an ADS-B transponder! I was puzzled as to why Santa had all of them devices on the collar of the reindeer. As with anything, I just googled it and found out all I needed to know! You see, with all the drone activity over New Jersey and other places in the United States, Santa had to take precautions to ensure that him and his team of reindeer didn’t get shot out of the sky while delivering presents to everyone this Christmas. The job of the ADS-B transponder was to send signals containing his sled’s position, altitude, velocity and other flight data to the air traffic controllers, FCC and military so they would recognize it as a friendly flying object and not to shoot it down! I also learned that this reindeer had a special name and NO it was not Rudolph but Droner! Droner, all of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names, they never let poor Droner join in any reindeer games! I believe that red nose reindeer just lost his job! End of Story.
Droner notes: Now for the real story, I took this picture at Big Meadows in June 2016. Back then the National Park Service used GPS-enabled radio tracking collars to track the deer movement as part of the White-tailed Deer Movement Study.
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Fun with pictures- The Big Train Wreck in Shenandoah
Did you hear about the big news about the tremendous derailment in Shenandoah last Friday? It was all over the news agencies and social media pages! It happened on First Street at the old mill building. As you know the old mill building is located right beside the railroad tracks and this building is now home to the Shenandoah Museum. Well, the story goes like this... It was a dark and foggy night and the locomotive had just crossed over the railroad tunnel over Maryland Avenue and was just entering the Shenandoah Yard Office. Then out of nowhere an object jumped on the tracks causing the train to derail. Some say the object may have been an apparition of a former railroad worker that had been involved in a railroad accident many, many years ago. Well, the locomotive jumped clean off the tracks and crashed thru several block walls of the Shenandoah Museum. It was such a loud crash that folks all the way up to the eastern side of town were wakened by the commotion! Some say the NTSB, Norfolk and Western accident response team and insurance company, all told the officials not to attempt to move the train until they arrive and inspect the accident scene to determine what caused this horrible accident. Today if you drive down First Street in Shenandoah, you can see the locomotive still protruding thru the east wall of the Shenandoah Museum. According to the legend, if you go down there at night, you may see an outline of a conductor as he turns on the headlight of the locomotive! My story ends here.
The Big Train Wreck in Shenandoah notes:
Follow link below to read the real story about this train sculpture and how the Drain family created it. (has nothing to do with my story!)
Thanks to my Eighth Grade English Teacher Mr. Larry Dickerson for inspiring my creative story telling abilities by having us write a two-page journal/story every week. Only wish he would have given them back at the end of the school year. My daughter and grandkids have been entertained over the years with many of my stories such as Hermie and Bob, The Peanut Lady and The Magical Chipmunk!
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Fun With Pictures- Look who’s Driving that Trans Am.
Did you hear about the time Santa Clause had a mechanical issue with his sleigh and declared an inflight emergency and had to do a crash landing in Shenandoah? They say he got a loaner vehicle at the local Pontiac Dealer. Well, it kind of goes like this. It was Christmas Eve 1978. I was traveling south along Route 340 highway in my hometown of Shenandoah Virginia in my 1974 Galaxie Ford 500. I got up to Batman Pontiac Garage and sales lot when something caught my eye as I passed by the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am they had on display out front. I couldn’t believe what I had just saw in the driver’s seat, so I drove up to Mr. Bryant’s Drug Store parking lot and turned around and went back for a second look and maybe take a few photographs. Yes, even back then I never went anywhere without my camera! I got out of my car and walked over to the Trans Am and sure enough, my wondering eyes were not playing tricks on me, it really was Santa Clause sitting inside the car! While the dealer was filling out paperwork for registration and tags for Santa’s new vehicle, Santa was quickly escorted around town by Shenandoah Fire Company 70.
Look who’s Driving that Trans Am notes.
In my book Shenandoah -The Thomas Family Collection, as written by Amos Thomas. I included several of my old pictures I took with my first camera around town in the late 70’s. The book is being sold at the Shenandoah Town Hall on First Street in Shenandoah.
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Fun With Pictures- where I (Amos Thomas) comically describe photographs with tongue-in-cheek!
Whether I am taking pictures around town or around the house, most of the time it’s obvious when viewing my pictures what is happening. Other times I feel the need to elaborate on what is happening or comically describe what may have been going on! And yes, sometimes my imagination kicks in and will result in a very humorous story. You may want to book mark this page as new stories will be added to this blog page and new stories will be added to the very top of this page.
