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Today I Took My Walk.
I have been taking a walk every day for the last three weeks. I try to walk at least two miles or more each time. I am taking it slow due to my right leg and hip that has been bothering me for at least seven or eight months now. My goal is to loose eighty pounds by May 23rd of 2002. I have already lost nine pounds and a few inches in my tummy.
I know for some of you, a loss of eighty pounds would be one half of your body weight, but that is not true in my case. We will see how it goes. So far I am very happy about how I feel and the weight that I am loosing. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I am also taking Slim-fast for breakfast and for lunch. I may eat an apple or a banana in between meals. So the goal has been set and I am off and running. Opps, walking in hopes to finish at a run. Haw!
During my walk that I took today, I saw my father as I stopped and looked both ways at the train crossing before attempting to cross. He had always drilled that into my mind, as we lived very close to the tracks when I was nine years old.
I was sitting in the cockpit of the stripped down fighter aircraft that had been placed on top of a flatbed railroad car. It was being shipped to and from a location unknown to me. The flatcar had been parked on a sidetrack for a few days awaiting a pickup from another freight train that would be coming through my hometown in Western Tennessee.
When my dad saw me sitting in the cockpit of the fighter, he almost blew a gasket. It was dangerous enough for me just living one hundred yards away from the train tracks, but to be up on top of the flatcar and inside the fighter plane was almost too much for him to endure.
"James David, get the hell down out of that damn air o plane and be quick about it." I didn't see anything wrong with me being there, but I respected my dad and quickly ejected up and out, running away from the plane, train and his presence. My thoughts were clear. Get out, get down, and get away from the problem. I was surprised that I never heard about that situation again. Perhaps me doing what I was told was sufficient enough to satisfy his anger or concern.
We used to walk on the tracks all the time. It was something that children and sometimes, adults as well would venture into. There was a time that we became so good at walking the rails, we would take our bicycles and learned by trail and error, falling many times before being able to balance them on the rails. Who ever slipped off first was a dirty rat. Or whatever names we would use in those days of 1945-1947, while living next to the train tracks.
I saw a young black man hop a freight train once during that same time period and I was witness to the terrible accident that occurred almost in front of me. He had ridden a short distance from one street to another. When he started to jump off of the boxcar that he was hanging onto, the train seemed to jerk and in loosing his balance, he fell underneath the wheels of the train. The Engineer was unaware of the accident and did not stop. I ran across the tracks and called out to my mother that was inside our home. She called the police and they came to the aid of the young black man. He lost his left leg, just below the knee. It was a sight that I have never forgotten and I learned a lesson that day. I have never hopped a train since to this day. I have a certain fear and respect for a train and the fact of having to cross over train tracks each and every time I do so, even today, fifty-five years later.
The crazy things that we did in those days, never taking a second thought of the danger that was ever present in our daily lives.
Yes, I saw my dad as I crossed the train tracks on my walk today. I stopped and looked both ways dad, just as you so lovingly taught me in you own special way.
My dad would be one hundred and seven if he were alive today. Come to think of it, he used the same walking stick that I had on my walk today. Maybe that was one of the reasons that I saw him as he approached me, warning me about being in the fighter plane and the possible danger.
© Deputy2
All Right Reserved
June 7, 2001
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