MEMORIES OF TRAINS
The big boys played baseball in a field across the tracks from our yard. I wasn’t allowed to cross the tracks, or go anywhere near them for that matter. But the top part of our yard, up close to the back door, was higher up and provided me a good vantage point to watch the games.
One day as I watched, a boy hit the pitched ball high and far. The ball was coming towards the train tracks, which were designated as the end of the playing field. A ball hit over the tracks was a home run.
But if an outfielder could catch it before it reached the tracks, the batter was out. So, this particular ball is quite well hit….it looks like it could be a homer! But the outfielder is determined to catch it and he’s barreling towards the tracks as he watches the ball’s flight. Danged if there isn’t a train coming! And it’s barreling down the tracks towards that same ball! Now I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it, but that ball landed smack-dab on the very top of the track rail at the very instant the train’s front wheel reached the same spot! That ball shot out from under that wheel like it was shot from a cannon…HIGH up in the AIR and FAR FAR down the tracks!
Now I can’t tell you what the big boys had to say about this. The train blocked all from my view. But I’m guessing that was a surefire home run and I would have loved to have seen the look on that outfielder’s face as he was racing to catch that ball and almost caught a train engine instead.
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…..continue to Part Four