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- Bank Problem
Once upon a time a local bank consulted with a local contractor about energy loss in their facility. The president of the bank told the contractor that he wanted his facility to be more energy efficient. He also requested that whatever changes the contractor will make, it had to remain friendly to automobiles.
The contractor told the bank president he was capable of very good, high end quality work and assured him he would come up with a top-notch solution to the energy loss problem. The contractor then went outside and walked around the large two-story brick building. He saw it had a lot of windows that was probably contributing to the energy loss problem. Upon careful examination of the large building, he said to himself “ I know exactly how to fix this problem. The building is way too large for the HVAC system it has.” He did notice a lot of cars driving to and from the building and he said to himself, “that is why it has to be friendly to cars!”
In a few days the contractor arrived back at the bank property and put up a large black construction fence that hid the entire building from the public. After a few days the contractor met with the bank president and told him the next stage of the remodeling job required the bank to be closed down and at that time no one would be allowed to enter the building. The bank president didn’t like that the bank had to close to the public and be emptied, but he understood and went along with emptying the building at the end of the day.
The folks working at nearby business was commenting on all the noise the construction crew was making and many of them remarked about many dump trucks that they had seen leaving thru the construction entrance and each truck were fully loaded with debris.
All the modifications to the bank building had finally come to an end and the contractor was ready to unveil the new and improved facility. The contractor had gathered the president and all employees to gather on the sidewalk in front of the bank. The contractor then told the president “sir … I now give you the honors of pressing the button that will lift the veil off of the bank. But before pressing the button I must say I am very proud of the work my guys have done on this project. I am sure you will now save hundreds on your energy bills and with that being said, you now can lower your interest rates to match the size of your building! At that moment, the president pressed the button and was speechless at what he saw! This picture was taken in May 2010 at the Shenandoah Memorial Day Parade. The bank building on the trailer is miniature replica of their Pioneer Bank building in Stanley Virginia.
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Fun With Pictures- Young Driver
Little Johnny was all the time helping his dad work on the Buick Special. He was there the first day his dad purchased the car. After they got it home, he helped his dad go to salvage yards and parts stores in getting various parts for the car. Johnny’s favorite job was washing and waxing the car. He would spend hours upon hours washing, waxing and detailing the car. You see, Little Johnny had a lot of free time these days as he was always being sent home early from school for stuff, he said he didn’t do!
One day Little Johnny was sitting under a shade tree and was reading the comics in the local newspaper. When he had finished reading all the comics, he happened to come across an ad about a car show being held on Saturday in the Town of Shenandoah on Memorial Day weekend. Little Johnny tore out the ad and put it in his pocket. He was thinking of asking his dad to take him and the car to the car show, but he remembered his dad telling him that he had to go in to work on Saturday. Johnny was really upset that his dad would not be able to take him and their car to the car show, as he really did want to go to the show as he heard that the Town of Shenandoah had the best car shows and hundreds of people took their cars to the show every year.
Little Johnny was disappointed and was still thinking about the car show as he kicked a tin can down the road. He didn’t have anything to do this Saturday and really, really, really wanted to go! All of a sudden, a light bulb popped on in his clever little head and he knew at that moment how to solve this problem…he would drive the car to Shenandoah’s car show all by himself!
While at the car show Little Johnny was really enjoying himself. He liked seeing all the other beautiful cars around him and he especially liked talking to every one about his dad’s car. He was having the time of his life, until out of the corner of his eye he spotted his father rapidly marching toward him with clenched teeth and fist! This picture was taken in May 2010 at the Shenandoah Memorial Day car show over at KVK parking lot.
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Fun With Pictures- The School Bus
At a local high school, the shop teacher was told to get the school bus cleaned up for the local parade. He told the principal that he would take care of it and get some of his best students to take care of sprucing up the old school bus.
After the bell rang to start the class, the high school shop teacher told a group of boys to go out and clean up the school activity bus for an upcoming parade. The boys complained and argued that they always got the dirty job of cleaning up the bus. The shop teacher just sternly stared at them and they reluctantly shuffled outside and slowly walked towards the bus. The oldest boy in the group was Johnny and he said, “Hey I got a plan that will fix them and make them so mad that they won’t pick us to wash the bus anymore!” He told the other students his plan and said “We need to wash the bus to begin with. We will add some American Flags to the front bumper. Then we need to touch up the paint and use new stencils to freshen up all the signs around the bus.” He went on to say that “the new and improved signs on the bus will be the key to his plan.”
After the students got the bus all cleaned and spruced up, they went and got the shop teacher and showed him their work. He was not thrilled at their spelling errors on the signs on the side of the bus. He then told them, “as your punishment, ALL of you will be required to ride in the bus during the parade!” This picture was taken in May 2010 at the Shenandoah Memorial Day Parade.
Fun with pictures hits 281 January 20, 2025.
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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.
