As I've shared before, my grandfather (mother's dad) was a lineman for the Frisco for many years starting in the 1930's. Recently I acquired some more information regarding his work with the Frisco that is a little interesting. By the way, his name was James Martin McGuire. He died of a stroke in 1994 about an hour after I left his house visiting him in Stratford, OK. During the early '40's he started bidding to get a position with the QA&P. In 1944 he finally got his wish. He stayed with the QA&P as a lineman for over 10 years. My mother told me that they lived north of Quanah near the Red River about a mile west of the Frisco line that crosses the state border back into Oklahoma. Grandfather got permission to build a motorcar shed next to the mainline adjacent to the road that they lived on. He would walk about a mile from the house to the motorcar shed in the morning, pull the motorcar out of the shed, and ride it in to Quanah to work each day. At the end of the day, he did the opposite and walked the mile home. It's fun learning the history of family members, especially when it involved the railroad!! Paul Moore
Hi Karl, Just found your posts. My grandfather was fairly typical of what I think of people of that era: pretty tough. He just did what he had to do and didn't seem to think much of it. Yes, the name "skyraider" is due to my appreciation of the Douglas built aircraft. It was the first aircraft that I know of that could carry it's own weight in payload or useful load. Several of my friends flew Skyraiders during the post-Korean war era and Vietnam. While I am a pilot (not current), I never flew in the military. My color vision is terrible and the armed forces didn't want me. Anyway, have a great week and a terrific Christmas, Paul Moore
