3025 W. Dayton St., Flint. Michigan 48504
The fact that a friend of mine, Maurice Genshaw, of Mt. Morris,
Michigan has a boiler and a 12 h.p. horizontal steam engine in his
garage attached to his home forms the beginning of the plot of this
story. When Maurice’s Christmas card arrived he had written in
a suggestion that I bring over some whistles and we would have a
On the morning of New Year’s Eve, I headed for Mt. Morris
with three sizeable whistles aboard. Maurice already had two on
hand, and with these resources we went to work. I might mention
that the backgrounds and pedigrees of these whistles were quite
varied. One was a rare Bass Whistle with a bell of rectangular
cross section. (The only one I have ever seen.) A three tone chime
formerly functioned on the local gas plant. The largest of the
group (about 5 feet tall) is a low pitched ship’s whistle. The
fourth formerly called the employees to work at a tannery and the
fifth was from a Mississippi River Boat. When our pipe-fitting
labors were over, we. stood back and admired our hardware spread
across the roof of the garage.
On New Year’s Eve a group gathered at Maurice’s for a
party. We indulged in refreshments, slide projections, and steam
engine running. Between 11:30 and 12:00, we built up a head of
steam, and at 12:00, we initiated 1970 with some terrific,
blasts.
