The Story of the town of Daisy. . . .
Ahhh! And what a story it is! Yes indeed!
63 years ago, in 1946, right after World War 2, Daisy was a thriving little town. With a population of over 430 and growing every day, folks here figured they'd someday be big enough to attract a few industries, and hopefully gain a railroad station. Why, just a few miles east was Gilliam, another small town that had a bowling alley! In addition, many of the towns residents there worked at the sawmill/lumber yard, or the big grain mill. And they had a nice train station! West, some 5 miles away, was the huge city of Henderson with it's large railyard, and a whole industrial park! Their train station was always busy, with the big steam and diesel passenger trains arriving and departing every hour.
The citizens of Daisy awoke every day, just knowing that soon a representative of some famous industrial firm would arrive in town (by bus, of course) and tell the town's mayor that their village had been selected to be the site of a giant factory! And with that would come their very own train station!! Heck, the tracks went right through the middle of town!
But as the years went by, it never happened. . . Trains continued to roar through town every day, those big GP38's and SD40's blowing their whistles, stopping traffic, and scaring Mrs. William's chickens!
Well, soon, the citizens of Daisy came to the realization that they'd probably never be important enough to get a train station. Besides, there was hardly any passenger service anywhere around them anymore. So, the residents began to resent the railroad that went right through the center of their town, making the cars and trucks stop at the crossing.
One day in 1979, during the mothly town meeting, local resident Fremont Fangdangle made a big speech. Now everyone knew Fremont because he owned the town's only general store. Fremont stood up and blasted the railroads, calling them every name in the book, chastising them for their noise and smelly diesel engines, for making citizens late for work when they had to stop at the crossings for the trains, and for frightening Mrs. Williams Chickens!
Well, that day the citizens passed a city ordinance, making it against the law for locomotives to pass through their city and stop traffic!!! A deligation, headed up by Fremont Fangdangle, was sent to the Ozark Valley Railroad headquarters.
They showed the president of the railroad their new city ordinance. He just laughed.
"Oh, don't worry," he said. "The railroad won't be stopping any more traffic in Daisy! We're building a new rail line and you'll never have to stop at the crossings again!"
And they did! They built a viaduct over the city...
and they didn't break Daisy's city ordinance!
