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There were only about six houses and a cotton gin in the little community near Canton, Texas, where Boxcar grew up.
"That old train used to come through in the middle of the night," he says. "The engineers had a way of making that old whistle sound that would make hair stand up on the back of your neck. They could blow that old whistle so mournful," he says, then he imates the sound, that really does make hair stand up on the back of your neck.
"From way across town you would hear some old dog howling. Boy, I'm telling you, I'd scrooch down in the covers. It's an eerie feeling."
Even with the track so close to the house, with the train shaking the hours, Boxcar says, he would sleep right through it. It was whe it didn't come that he was restless.
Boxcar says "it is very easy to be a star. I don't mean that I'm rich, or anything like that. I just make a living nowadays. I look at my friend, Roy Acuff. He's worth millions of dollars. He's one of the biggest stars in country music that's ever lived.
His records have sold in the milions through the years. He is the "Grand-Ole-Opry," Boxcar says. "He stops and talks to everybody that comes by. He has a ball, and I find myself doing the same thing. I love it. It's he easiest thing in the world."
The small-town crowd at the county fair makes it easy, Boxcar said. He'll stand out and talk with them as much as they like. His reward, in addition to increased popularity is when he hears a kid say, "Hey, mama, I shook his hand."