OBSCURE SHOW BIZ PROFILE: BOXCAR DOUGIE

Dougie Whitlock was abandoned in an open field by his parents when he was just 37 years old. He cried and he cried, but they did not come back, unlike the other times. Those times were just to teach him a lesson. This time they were serious, apparently.

He was hungry, thirsty, and his Hanes briefs were filled with unpleasantness.

He crawled toward what appeared to be Disney World, but turned out to be a cruel mirage. He continued crawling until he could crawl no more, so he started walking.

"Why didn't I think of this sooner?" he said to no one in particular, especially not to the gopher who eyed him with what he sensed was either a combination of awe and admiration or embarrassment and disgust. And possibly hunger.

He finally reached the end of the open field, but to his dismay he found that it bordered seemlessly on another open field. He pushed himself onward, and several open fields later he came upon some train tracks just as a freight train was approaching. On impulse, he leaped into an open car. He ate a pile of sawdust and fell asleep.

When he awoke he jumped off the train just outside of Nashville. He soon gained minor fame in the country music capital as Boxcar Dougie, singing plaintive hobo laments about hopping freights, riding the rails and eating sawdust.