riding the rails

My Uncle owns a caboose. I have no idea how that came to be, or where it came from, or where it is now...but he still owns it.

When I was about 11 years old I got to ride it in, as it was being pulled behind a long train. I can remember sitting in the top bunk with my two cousins, Jay and Scott.

I don't recall how fast we got going, but it must have been pretty quick, because everyone once in a while a tree limb or shrub/bush would scrape the side of the train and (if we didn't tuck our heads back inside) would have scraped up our faces.

I remember Jay yelling out "eye rake!" each time he would see a bush approaching , we would scream and pull our heads back through the window laughing.

Today (over 20 years later) I watch Braden and his cousin Keith try to stick their heads out of the Streetcar window. They being only 5 and 3 did not really understand how dangerous that kind of game could be, especially with large green lampposts that go whizzing by at 30 MPH. I watched as the two of them would peer out the window, cool wind in their face, yelling at the top of their lungs some made up word every time a vertical green blur would pass us by.

Purely for my own sentimental moment I let it go on for half a mile or so, until the odd scream noise became really annoying...

Somewhere Bruce is singing... Glory Days ;-)