One of the greatest times of my life was jumping frieght trains. It was 3 miles one way to the school. I jumped a freight train every morning and rode it to Harrison St and jumped off before it started downhill. I only had to walk 1 block to the school. I was always 10 minutes early .. No buses in those days! Great time, worth all the spankings ..

Filed under: My Book "Jimmy" by James Gaskell today

My favorite train car was the lumber car .. I would jump onto the lumber car and climb to the top and sit amongst the sweet smell of pine and cedar wood .. I watched my friends walking to school and feeling bad about it .. About 12 days after, one of the students saw me disembark from the train and told the teacher who informed the Principal .. Mr Smith who called me into his office .. As I entered the office, I observed several diplomas which was impressive until he asked me a very dumb question .. "Jimmy, why do you jump on the train every morning" .. I was still looking at the diplomas! "Well Mr Smith, I could walk the 3 miles which would take me 22 minutes or I could ride a slow moving frieght train that passes by my house every morning and be to school 10 minutes early" .. He pulled out a paddle about 1 foot in legth with holes in it .. My first spanking was 3 extremely hard swats .. Man, did that hurt .. He told me to stay off the train .. I didn't say anything .. I knew there was no way I would ever stay off that train .. Every morning I rode the train and I received at least 2 spankings a week .. He finally gave up after a few weeks .. I WON!

I was in the fourth grade when I started this great adventure .. Sometimes my dog Teddy would try and follow me on the train but always gave up half way along .. If you could imagine a nine year old boy sitting on top of a lumber car being pulled by a steam engine that was rolling at 6 miles an hour .. To smell the smoke and hear the whistle and watching the neighborhood go by .. Dad's going to work, kids waalking to school, the smell of early morning .. Yes, I was king every morning .. I could never give that up until I was ready .. And it suddenly came about when I was eleven (6th grade) .. The railroad changed their steam engines to diesel which was much stronger .. I had a hard time getting on the train one morning and was unable to get off for school .. I wound up in Klamath Falls late in the evening .. I was caught and they called my Dad who came and picked me up .. He was livid .. I was sorry .. 12 hour round trip and that was the last time on a train ..

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