Boyd Independence

Tomorrow is July 4th, Independence Day.  I was thinking not of our country's freedom, it's independence, but of my grandfather, Frank Boyd and his independence. Frank was the son of Peter and Parilee Boyd from Waycross, GA.  Born 1898 or about's, I have know ideal when Frank arrived in Columbus, OH or why he decided that this would be his home, but he did and I'm here. 

I was told by Frank's sister Lucy's grandson (genealogist you know this lingo) that when Frank left Waycross he never returned.  Never to see his parents, or his siblings and he had 13 or 14 of them.  Yet he worked on a train, surely he had to again pass through Waycross, but he said 'never.'  But what made him seek his independence, other than what comes naturally to a man, it's time.

I researched Waycross and found that it once was a hubbub for the railroad industry.  I imagine that he not only viewed the rails as employment, but freedom, adventure. Or was he leaving an environment that wasn't conducive to a black man, well it's down south. Who know's. Which is my problem, who knows and I can't find this answer.  I have yet had correspondence with a blood Boyd relative except for Frank's sister Lucy's grandson.  He could only relay what he heard.

Anyway's, I'll think of Frank and how his independence led him to work the rails.  The rails that took him from Waycross were the same rails that kept him away from my father, Cecil.  I'll think of how Frank may have yearned for it's rails to take him out of Waycross and my father yearning for the train to pull into Union Station to bring his father home.