Doesn't that sound like a creepy little-kids' book title?
Holly posted this somewhere.
Things to do when I get my braces off:
1. Have corn on the cob like all the time
2. Go to Shoney's and get like a ton of gum from their really cool 25¢ gum machine
3. Eat carrots until my skin turns orange
4. Mess with big Wax lips without getting nasty red on my braces
Who I'd like to meet:
A hobo that's actually jumped at least one train.
And maybe a robot with lavender hair named Simon.
She had the first part, up to the carrots a couple of weeks. Her braces do come off in April. But that's not why I brought it over here. She posted on Tuesday night that she would like to meet a hobo who'd jumped a train. (I believe "hopped a train" is the technical term, the idiomatically proper phrase, but...)
Wednesday night my troublesome younger half-brother, born when I was old enough to use birth control responsibly and my mother was not, called me from Buda, Texas. Last time he called he was either in Alaska or Montana. He changed his story partway through because sometimes it's hard to keep the lie straight. But now he's in Texas, and one of the stories he had to tell was that he was trying to get to New Orleans and was arrested for riding in a box car and put in jail in Del Rio or some such place. I was thinking maybe two days. No, he served 45 days of a 90 day sentence. He sweet-talked and guilted a female judge to let him out early.
So I'm telling Holly what Justin said, and she got big eyes because she had JUST posted less than 24 hours before that she wanted to meet someone who had hobo-fied a train ride. Ta-daaa.
My mom had an uncle who died, during The Depression, jumping out of a boxcar before it quite stopped, as they were wont to do, we understand. My granny said once that he was probably pushed because he had done it too much not to be able to do it right.
4 comments:
Hey I jumped a train once and rode it about 20, maybe 30, yards. With a German guy who'd come to visit a friend of mine in Omaha when I was 19 or so. I think I'd just read a biography of Loren Eiseley, a famous Nebraska naturalist who jumped and rode a few trains.
Just did a quick search with the keyword videos and found http://www.archive.org/details/hobo_opening
and http://www.ridingtherails-themovie.com/clips.html
and I found this great site: http://www.northbankfred.com/index.html
That was fun, so thank Holly for me for suggesting such a cool internet meander.
Schuyler
Is that "Donald of Duckford" you're talking about? I remember the two of you out squashing giant June bugs by flashlight, lo these many decades ago.
We used to watch the border patrol agents catch train jumpers, at the overpass heading south on Hwy 54/70 in Alamogordo. Some border patrol agents would be hiding down on the ground, and some above on the overpass, with walkie talkies, watching the trains from above.
I said my first word while camping at Del Rio, Texas, it was tree. :-)
Katy J.
Gosh, that's a fun site! I'm leaving that. It has kids' videos to promote Judeo-Christian values, but I learn this from that page:
""In a day when our Christian, Biblical values are at stake in America, it is refreshing to have available for young children and grandchildren these enchanting - and true - Animated Stories from the New Testament. They are attractive, professionally done, and true to the word of God."
--Ted W. Engstrom President Emeritus World Vision"
Just reading the pictures to the right of that quote, I'd say Ted Engstrom might be promoting the idea, somehow that the New Testament promotes Judeo-values, and that it truly contains David & Goliath, George Washington, and Thomas the Tank Engine.
No wonder that religion is so big. You don't have to be smart, or honest, or know any history, to be a great Christian!
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