My Grandads old stories

[Happerry]

(Jan. 22, 1995)







In 1938 or so, one late October evening after a roller skating session at King's Roller Rink, my best friend, George van Kleeck, and I, caught the
freight train at the trestle on the lower end of the McKinley Avenue gulch for the ride up the gulch to Bismarck, where it always stopped for some switching,
or something, and we would get off and walk the rest of the way home-either to his house or mine.



This time though, the train not only didn't stop when it got to the 64th street crossing, but it was picked up speed at this point, too
fast for us to get off, especially as dark as it was. We just hung on, standing on the rear platform of the caboose, trying to puzzle out what to do.



About seven hours later we got off the train between Hoquiam and Aberdeen, a little after daylight. We wandered down the streets until we
came to the house of a relative of George's, and after we pounded on the door for awhile, the lady of the house let us in after determining who we
were.



A little later the relatives phoned George's folks in Tacoma to let them know where we were and that we were alright. I think she was an
aunt or something, not very enthused about us being there. But she fed us and then let us sleep someplace there for awhile, and after another little while,
early afternoon I think, we walked out to the highway and hitch-hiked back to Tacoma.



Neither George's folks nor my family knew that we were out of town for the evening. We both lived at each others' house, sometime two
or three days at a time before checking in at the other house, and for the most part that was a good arrangement. We had the same school hours, same
homework, the same everything, caught the same streetcar, etc etc.