Thirty-Eight

            I got up into NY state and had to change trains in Jamestown, NH. It wasn't a very big place and I found out there was only one train through there a day going my way. It didn't stop, just slowed down a little. I had to catch it or wait till the next day for the next one. Some fellows told me where the best place was to try it. They said some fellows make it and some don't. All I knew was I had to make it. I was pretty good at it by now and felt sure I could so I settled down and waited.

            After quite a wait I heard the noise. I couldn't see it but I could hear it and I knew it was traveling. I soon seen it and knew it was going somewhere in the middle of forty miles an hour. I was almost afraid to try it as the engine went by throwing dirt and gravel. I had to try it quick so I'd have the second chance before the whole train went by.

            I started running with it as fast as I could. The train was still going past me awfully fast but when the next steep came past I made a jump and grabbed for it. I had the bundle over one hand so I had about one and a half hands when I caught hold it jerked me off the ground and my feet was straight out in the wind.

            My fingers felt numb and I felt them slipping. I was thrown across another set of tracks and hit the rail after the third one with the back of my leg, just back of the knee. I thought it was broke it hurt so bad.

            By now the train was too far gone. I couldn't move well enough to make the second try so I spent the night beside the railroad tracks waiting for the next one.

            The leg was so sore and aching. I decided to head back to Uncle Paul's place. It was nearest so I got rid of the bundle and made a try the next day at the train going south. I had both hands free this time and it was all I could do to hold on when my feet left the ground. It was the fastest traveling train I ever caught and I was sure glad I had a year's practice behind me.

            It was the next day, towards evening. I was going back down the mountain over the horseshoe curve near Altoona, PA. I was riding the top of one of the boxcars and the view was just as nice as I enjoyed the first time. I looked forward to seeing it again after leg was ok and I started my trip north again.

            It was a couple of days ride till I got back but as soon as Paul seen my leg he got me to the doctor's in the horse and buggy. I had a read bad bruise where my leg hand landed across one of the rails. He had to put a tube in my leg in the back of the left knee and I had to keep my foot up on another char so it would keep draining. I was laid up for six weeks. My Uncle Paul laughed and said, "Just think, after all the miles you traveled and all the know-how you have, now something like this happens." I told him I just met up with a train anyone had to be crazy to try and catch. Guess I just thought I was better than I was and learnt my next lesson. I knew after that, a train traveling around forty-five miles per hour was just too fast to handle.

            One day, after I was getting around okay, Paul took me along to a funeral of a man he knew. The man had shot himself in the forehead. He was alone at home. When they found him he was sitting upright in a corner.

            It was the first time I had ever seen anyone dead. I went along with Paul up to the coffin and looked at him. They just had a small piece of cheesecloth over the hole in his forehead. I could see right through it where the bullet went in. That's the only part of it I remember.

            One more thing I never forgot was, when my friend and I were in Mexico and the people there got us to put a pepper in our mouth and chew it up. We thought our mouths would never stop burning. It was our first time with hot peppers and the people there got a big kick out of us trying to find something cold to drink.

Thirty-Seven

            Uncle Melvin's steady job was working in the coal mines, the same place my Uncle Paul worked. I remember when they came home from work they sure was dirty and black. My Grandmother heated water on the kitchen stove in a wash boiler. Uncle Paul would set the washtub on two chairs right in the middle of the kitchen in front of the stove. He liked the tub because it was big enough so he wouldn't be slopping water all over the floor. They burnt coal in the stoves and had oil lamps and lanterns for lights. They always had one along when they were gone to be out at night with the horse and buggy or sleigh at night in the wintertime.

            I used to watch my Grandmother, Mom is what we all called her so I will now, put up my Uncle's lunch pail. She put eight sandwiches in the bottom. It had a tray in the top. She put in half of a pie and some cake in that part then he had a gallon jug he carried his drink in. I don't remember what he took. It was either water, milk or coffee. I know he never touched hard drink of any kind. None of them in the family did. Even Melvin didn't even though he was hauling it for the ones that made it. It was for the good pay he got.

            While I was there I shared his bedroom. We used to lay wake till after midnight lots of times while he told me of his experiences. I had my own bed in Uncle Paul's room but lots of times when we went upstairs to bed it wasn't too long till I heard "Hey Nate, you want to hear what happened to me today?" That's when I was out of bed, went to his room and jumped into bed with him and it was a couple of hours just listening to him. Sometimes we played cards till late. He liked cards a lot but never gambled. We played 500 Rummy most of the time, sitting on the bed. He and I would begin to see it get daylight some mornings sometimes before we'd get to sleep.

            I used to like to look at his guns he had. He had three in his bedroom and the one in the car. He cleaned them a lot and he'd let me help take them apart to oil and clean them. A lot of the time he'd take me down back of the house in the woods and show and teach me how to shoot targets. I got so I could do pretty good for me back then. He let me take the shotgun on Sundays and we'd go rabbit hunting.

            The rabbits were really thick out around the stone piles in the field. Sometimes they would get almost a washtub full. They would give a lot away to different people as everyone around there ate a lot of rabbit. I used to take some to the place I used to go to play cards and ride the horse. The man was a brother to my Grandmother so I guess his children would of been about third cousins to me. Anyways, they liked to roast rabbit over an open fire in the backyard and they sure were good.

            I was thinking a little every day about going back home so one day Melvin took me to Somerset, a town about seven miles away, where I could get a train going north and I was on my way. I had a small bundle with a change of cloths and some sandwiches Mom made up for me. I had a little of my own money from working but Melvin gave me five dollars more so I thought I was pretty well off.

            On my way up across PA I went through Altoona, PA. There was some mountain the train had to cross and there was a horseshoe curve the train went around. I could look right across the valley and see the last half of the train going up the mountain and the half I was on was going the other way. It was quite a sight. I kept wondering why the engine didn't pull the train right off the track in the middle going' around such a turn. 

Thirty-Six

            The only thing when we went home that might be took a different way; it was three times as far around, I ask him why he did that. He said he always done that because of the Police or different people that followed him. Sometimes they would try to crowd him off the road or set up road blocks to make him stop. He said that's why he carried the gun, just in case they did get him cornered. He said other bootleggers would try to put each other out of business. Sometimes they'd use dynamite and try to blow up each other's stills or cars.

            One thing Uncle Melvin would never tell me to come along and help him or even think of doing what he was doing. He said he'd give me a ride now and then but that was it. He was good in that way with me. I guess I can be glad he was like that because at my age at that time I could of ended up in jail or been killed.

            I never knew much about my Uncle Melvin. I mean things he done or was in away from home. Only a few rides he let me go on once in a while and I knew it wouldn't of been good for him if they caught him. I know some of the rides was fast, wild ones.

            I remember one day he came home all excited at what he seen that day. The automatic transmissions where just beginning to come out and he saw one and tried it out for the first time for himself. He said he was sure gonna own one of them and that no body would catch him. But he was wrong.

            The Police sure earned their pay but they finally caught him asleep in his car one night. When he woke up every direction he looked he saw one standing with a gun trained on him. He decided he better give up. He went to reform school for one year but it straightened him out and he went to work.

            The same thing happened to brother Frank. He went straight after that too if he thought he might get caught. He still done little things. The trouble with him; he'd lose his nerve awful quick and run off and leave everything and everyone. He sure stayed in running shape and he could run.  There wasn't many times I could keep up with him.

            Uncle Melvin, he still was mad at the Police and he showed me one night in town how he jacked up on back wheel of a police car. Then he took me across the street and called them on the phone. He told them someone was being hurt or robbed at a certain place in town. Then we watch them come running out, jump in the car and not move. The wheel would just spin. They had to get there jack out, jack up the car to get the block out from under the rear end.

            He's the one that showed me how to put a half pound of sugar into the oil and a few days later they were doing a motor job on the car. Then one night one night he put five gallons of water in the gas tank of a Police car. It made them drain the tank, blow the lines out and clean the carburetor before it would run. The Police was sure mad at him and they sure knew he was back but they couldn't do anything unless they caught him and he made sure they didn't.

            He used to set roofing nails under the tires so when they started to move they'd end up with flat tires or loosen the nuts on the wheels. I think if they did catch him he'd still be in jail. 

Thirty-Five

            Uncle Paul had the main house and a summerhouse they lived in during the summer and one night both of us was sleeping in the summer house. Frank seen the police car stop out front. He woke me and said they were after him. We were up the stairs. He told me to go down and let them in. When I did he went out the upstairs window, out to the road, and took the police car and got away. He left the car up the road a little ways and went on foot. He stayed away about a week, till things quieted down, before he came back.

            Him and Uncle Melvin got a half grown steer one night and somehow forced it into the car and took it down into the back country and sold it for meat. While it was in the car it sure made an awful mess all over the back seat and the floor. It was a long time till they could get the smell out. They were always after chickens, ducks, pigs and young livestock. They would always sell those things cheap. A lot of the people couldn't afford to by meat any other way.

            One time Frank got a ride from a fellow driving a pick up. He was riding in back. The fellow was going about forty miles an hour when Frank saw a police car come in sight about a half mile back. Frank thought they were after him and just jumped right off the truck. He thought he was going to kill himself before he stopped rolling and bouncing. He got pretty well banged up and was lame and for a for a week. H got up somehow and got into the woods and just lay there. The police car went on by. They wasn't even after him that time.

            One time I want along with my Uncle Melvin. He wasn't hauling any whiskey and he wouldn't tell me where he was going, just said he had to take care of some fellows that was mad at him.

            It turned out they were a bunch that kept chasing him when he was delivering whiskey. When I got in the car I seen a bunch of chains in the back of the car. I asked him what they was for. He just said I was going to see a lot of fun.

            It was about two in the morning when we got to where he stopped. He said we had to walk the rest of the way. He had me carry two of the chains. He took the other three. We were deep in the woods. He said we had to sneak up to the backside of the house.

            When we got there I could see five cars parked there. They were all backed in so they could get out fast. Melvin too the chains and chained them all together then hitched the last one to a tree. He said now let's sneak back to the car, I'll show you something.

            He drove the rest of the way, right up to the house, turned around, making all kinds of noises. He had a gun along, he always carried it in the glove compartment. He shot into one of the cars. About then they were coming out of the house and Melvin took off. He only went a little ways and stopped and told me to watch.

            They jumped in their cars and really started out. They wrecked and pulled the rear ends and wheels out from under all the cars. Melvin had hitched the chains to the rear end not the bumpers like I thought he done. When they got out of their cars that's when Melvin yelled and said, "Good-bye fellows! See you on my next trip!" and we went home. All Melvin said now wasn't that fun. I bet they think so. The best part was they never chased him again.