Twenty

            By now I was over my fear of the trains. They didn't look so big and fearful. I was able to go from one end to the other by walking or running over the tops of the box cars to get to a flat car to sit and rid in the open. Sometimes if it started to rain we climbed over the edge and swung down into an empty boxcar if the door was open. It used to be black and dirty when the train went through tunnels. We lay down flat if we was on top and kept or eyes shut. It was almost impossible to breath with all the black smoke and ashes the engine threw off.

            On hot days I used to like to lay on the top of the box cars on the catwalk and get all the wind. there was some days I could look off in the distance for maybe thirty miles and see mountains that still had snow on the peaks. We began to see a lot of cowboys on horses and cattle. There were no fences at that time so they had to keep them from roaming too far away it was flat open land for miles and miles.

            One day we were riding in a boxcar with fifteen or twenty other fellows. After one or two hours I got up, sat down in the doorway with my feet hanging out, swinging my legs. I wasn't there more than two or three minutes when two fellows grabbed me under the arms from behind and dragged me back into the boxcar. I thought they were going to beat me up. They just said, 'We see you are new at riding freight or you would never sit with your legs hanging out the door. Certain things, like railroad signals and bridges, are built so they come real close to the train. They can catch your legs and drag you out, and that would be it.' I sure was glad they done what they did. It seemed most of the fellows traveling on the trains were kind of looking out for each other even if they didn't know each other. I know in the short time I was at it so far I learned a lot and I was just starting.

            A few of the fellows was old timers on the trains and had done it for years. They kind of kept to themselves but when I could get with one of them they could tell some unbelievable things they done and learnt and things that happened to them and the kind of people they met, where the best places to go and when. It was like traveling with a teacher. One thing I didn't believe was when they told me how they rode the rods under the train when there was no place to get on, but after three or four different ones told me the same thing I started to believe and wondered if I'd ever do that. I knew I had a lot to learn and I'd just wait and see.

            About six months later I did it just once on a passenger train but never did it again. There was too much dirt and small gravel stones flying all around me and a few hit me. I was glad when I got off. That ride we had to sneak on under the train before it started and couldn't get off until it come to a stop. There was two rods that ran from end of the car to the other end. I had to crawl on top of them and lay cross ways. That was a bad ride and was used only as a last resort.