The Ballad Of The Worst Prank Ever
The Casey Jones Museum Incident Of 1988
My father, Norm Rockwell, loved pranks.
He LOVED pranks.
That’s what I get for having a cartoonist as a father.
Here’s a link to the page where I’m publishing his cartoons:
When I was thirteen years old my father played a Master-Level Prank on my brother and myself.
The three of us headed to Florida from Wisconsin to soak in the sun, even though it was July. My mother had gone to take care of her mother who had broken her hip for the fifth time. We didn’t have anything else to do.
Why not drive to Florida?
1980s Florida was considered a good place to visit.
Florida was a bit of a bust.
When we crossed into the panhandle of Florida, my dad decided, “That’s far enough.” We were in Florida, weren’t we?
Disney World was a swamp too far. Especially in a 1980s Dodge Aries with a broken air conditioner.
We stayed in some little beach town near Pensacola and went swimming under a red flag warning. (That’s a story for another day)
But, we were in Florida!
The Holy Land for the people of the Upper Midwest.
The Casey Jones Museum Incident Of 1988
On the drive home we stopped at a place called, “The Casey Jones Museum.” The museum was in a whistle-stop town in backwoods Mississippi, just off the interstate. The museum was in an old white house they converted into a museum.
Update: I just did some “research” for this essay. The museum was in Vaughan, Mississippi and I don’t think it exists anymore. Luckily for Casey Jones fans out there, there’s TWO other Casey Jones museums in the United States.
Short synopsis of Casey Jones: There was a guy named Casey Jones in 1900 who averted a giant train wreck by ringing a bell on his train. He died in the wreck saving everybody else. He became famous because somebody wrote a folk song called, “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” And then, Johnny Cash sang it, and he got even MORE famous! Amazing.
The song is probably why my father knew about Casey Jones.
He just had to pull off Interstate 55 in Mississippi to check out the museum. He loved finding little historical spots and a map [paper] and go there.
So, there we stood in the middle of the Casey Jones Museum in the middle of Mississippi looking at the bell Casey Jones rang, thereby averting a train disaster.
Casey Jones! What a story!
The bell from the train was the focal point of the museum. It’s all busted up from when the train disaster occurred. They say his ghost still rings the bell at midnight on the anniversary of the wreck.
As we viewed this historic bell with awe, an idea popped into my dad’s head.
He leaned over to us and whispered,
“Let’s steal that bell.”
You have to understand that both my brother and I knew that my father was a prankster of spectacular means. But, we also couldn’t put it past him that he might actually steal the bell.
I said, “What are you talking about? We don’t steal. We’re not the Rockwells of western Connecticut!”
He didn’t care.
He told us his plan to steal the Casey Jones Bell.
I was tasked with keeping the museum curator distracted (there was just one nice older lady working at the time) while he pulled the car around to the back. He and my brother would load it into the car through the loading dock!!
I was nervous. I couldn’t think straight.
He seemed serious.
He seemed like he was actually going to do it.
The Bell Heist Of The Century
So, there I stood, making small talk with this super nice museum lady. I had to keep her busy.
… and God dang if my father didn’t go outside, start the car up and back the car up to the loading doors of the museum.
I knew he loved history and The Casey Jones story, but to actually steal a historical artifact? He might as well have been stealing The Liberty Bell.
He was actually going to steal the Casey Jones bell!
He came back into the museum and *winked* at me and went to the bell.
I was sweating bullets.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye. I don’t remember where my ten-year-old brother was, probably keeping the car running…
He went to the bell.
He leaned over and grabbed the bell!
He was doing it!
And then he started laughing. Uproariously laughing!
He got me.
Big time.
The lady had no idea why he was laughing maniacally.
This incident was a good representation of my childhood.
Not too bad.
PS: I’m still not convinced that the idea of actually stealing the Casey Jones Bell didn’t cross his mind.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/1988_Dodge_Aries_coup%C3%A9_LE_rear.jpg
Ur welcome from nirmal and Gordon!
Lmfaoooo that was gold! I had a grandad who would have actually tried to have a go at it if I’d wanted it. The other was just the opposite. And both parents were too self obsessed.