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A RAILROAD
ADVENTURE
by Maj. General
Thomas R. Rampy
Submitted by Gordon Rampy |
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My
uncles Lewis and Lawton moved from Bell
County around 1904 and settled in Runnels
County, some 150 miles west. When I was around twelve Father thought
it would be good experience for me to visit them. There was an exchange
of letters, then several restless days and nights on my part until
Father put me aboard the train at Belton
about dawn on a bright summer morning, with instructions to the conductor
to look after me and see that I was put off at Benoit,
a flag stop twelve miles east of Ballinger. It was late afternoon
when the train came to a screeching halt where it did not ordinarily
stop but merely put out an extended steel arm to snatch a mail bag
from the pole as it passed. My uncle Lawton was then foreman of Benoit
section of the railroad and lived quite close to the track. When I
stepped off the train my Aunt Sally was standing there to greet me.
She took me into her house and soon told me that Lewis lived a half
mile or so away and that Lawton was not yet home from his work on
the track.
There were six or seven children in the two families and I alternated
visiting and sleeping between the two homes. The landscape of that
area is quite different from what I was accustomed to in Bell
County. The terrain is quite level with a scattering of mesquite
trees and some scrub oak, but it made a deep imprint on me as a child
to observe these differences from my home area.
Another new thing to me was the sight of prairie dogs and their "towns."
The little animals are very alert and shy of humans, so we watchers
had to lie flat on the ground close by a town and wait for them to
come out of their underground homes. A town might cover an acre or
so in area with a hundred or more holes, which are entered from the
top of the small mound around each hole. The dogs are noted for their
ability to enter their holes quickly and avoid danger from other animals,
including capture by humans. This experience was probably the highlight
of my visit.
After a week of exploring the new scene I was put on the train for
return home. It had been a long stay, or so it seemed to me. Father
met me at Belton and
I recall how anxious I was to get home and talk about my trip. This
was my first in a life which was destined to include innumerable trips
— by land, by sea, and by air.
The
incident described above was the basis for an article I wrote some
time ago, called "A Special Delivery. (A link to the past)" It is
posted here: http://www.upamerica.org/specialdelivery.htm
Thanks for the great job you are doing to preserve our precious past.
- Gordon Rampy, Warrenton, Virginia, www.upamerica.org
August 11, 2007
Copyright
Maj. General Thomas R. Rampy
"They shoe horses,
don't they?"
August 15, 2007 Guest Column
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