Boxcars

There is a place on the west side of town where Harry and I used to ride our bikes and spend hours playing around. To get to that part of town you have to cross a set of railroad tracks.

There is only one set of tracks there now, but in the picture above you can see where there used to be another set on the right. On that siding, long train consists, usually boxcars, were left for weeks or months at a time. I can remember visiting the trains a couple of times. We were always worried we would surprise, or be surprised, by a hobo or bum.

On one occasion we took a friend and a tape recorder with us. We recorded ourselves for at least an hour just running and playing around the boxcars. It was fun when a train came on the main line. We would jump into one of the stationary cars and watch the speeding train fly by.

There was another time when it was just Harry and me on a very cold day. We were climbing up into the boxcars to get out of the wind and cold. And we had a means of making fire with us. So we found a bunch of trash and built a fire inside one of the boxcars to keep ourselves warm. I remember looking back as we left for home, there was still smoke coming out of the door.

But now those tracks are gone and our days of playing in boxcars are long gone.