TRAINS AND STORM HOUSES: POST #56

My Dad loved trains and I did too. Dad worked on the railroad for Sixteen Years and even though he loved it, he often said that if he had continued working on the railroad he would not have lived as long as he did. It was really hard work. I liked trains too but you know, I have never ridden but one little train and it was not a very long trip. Someday, I want to take a good long ride on a train. Barbara's mother heard that they were not going to continue with passenger trains through Bay so she put My Lady and her little brother and sister on a train to Jonesboro and drove along the highway in the car waving at them just to let them ride a train. She was a great Mom.

Dad would be in the cotton field later or out on a job as a carpenter and he would hear a train coming through. He would always look at his watch to see if 'old 96' or whatever the train was, was on time. Our Son Marty still has a smashed nickel that Dad gave him and took him down to the tracks and put it on the rail and let the train mash it flat. He loved trains to the day that he died.

Another thing that Dad got into was building concrete storm houses. I told you earlier about him building one at our house but part of it was already built. But, I suppose that it was after one of the real bad storms came that Dad built a set of forms and began building concrete storm houses. There are many of them still across the country in Craighead County Arkansas and some of the storm houses are still standing even though the house itself is gone.

Building a concrete storm house is WORK! I helped him build some of them and just thinking about it now makes me tired. All of those forms had to be bolted together and tied with wires in some places so that they would be able to hold all that concrete. Then on the top and down the sides there were steel rods put in there so that storm house would be there when the Lord comes again. But, he wanted them to especially last through any kind of storm.

When the forms were all set he would start the concrete mixer and mix the gravel, sand, and water until it was just right. Then, the fun part would start. He had already built a runway about thirty feet out from the storm house up to the top. He would pour the wheel barrow (wheel Barr) full of that concrete and it was my job to push it to the top and empty it down the sides until we had it all filled up and the top poured. The sides and top were EIGHT inches thick. I tell you right now that was some job! But, I did it all day long and into the night several times, up and down that runway with that load of concrete. I got to be a mighty strong man during those times. Today I couldn't go up that runway with a snuff can full of concrete but I did then. I weighed about 250 pounds when I was doing this and I cannot imagine now what I ate when I got home from one of those days. After the concrete would set a few days we had to go and remove the forms and he would be ready to build another one.

"Hard work never hurt anybody" they say. I have heard that all of my life. Well, if you believe that, just go out and build yourself a concrete storm house and see if it hurts. It won't be long until you call one of these companies that makes these new-fangled storm cellars and have them come put one in for you.

I like to go down to Herman Junction and every time that I do, I look out at that first storm house that Herb built and thank the good Lord that I don't have to do that anymore. That one at our house helped to make Herman Junction alright.