Adios , Punk Blackstone.

Punk Blackstone ,longtime Durango conductor , passed away december 10 .He was 89 . Punk was controversial . Either you liked him or you didn't .He was an excellent railroader , and demanded that from fellow workers .Like a lot of old rails ,nobody did it as good as Punk . He started out on the D&RGW ,hiring out in 1940 or 41 . Punk retired in the 1970s ,the senior Silverton conductor . Right up to the end ,he had a crystal clear memory , and I learned a lot from P8unk ,and Punk was very sharing with information . Punk was a sharp businessman.Some say avaricious . he put out the word in Chama back in the '50s , that he would pay face value for gold coins . (many Americans mistakenly believed it was illegal to own gold coinage) . One man turned in a coffee can full of gold Eagles and Double Eagles ! He invested everything in real estate in the Durango area ,and it made Punk a very wealthy man . He was making deals almost up to the end . Lots of anecdotal tales swirled around Punk . He was ,shall we say ,vocal ,and people always looked for any slip-up on Punk's part . One hilarious tale was on a spring work train at Silverton ,he shooed the crew out of his caboose ,as he had "work to do" . Boy ,with railroaders ,that was a big mistake ! The crew ,peeking through the windows ,caught Punk greasing up his huge hemmoroids with axle grease ! Punk fought in Europe in WWII and received a Purple Heart . I will miss him .