We hung around our abandoned farm.. Taking turns keeping watch out for Derail and tigger. Sure we speculated but we also took wild guesses .. one great falls worker said there wouldn’t be a train from Shelby till Monday night. But another more friendlier seeming worker said there would probably be a train through in about 5 hours..
There are no absolute certainties about anything.. you might as well look go look at rat with its head cut off in a graveyard. It’s better than getting clubbed in the head with with a rat like in the old days. Now and then, you’ll get purposely-wrong information from a friendly guy ,
A workman for the railroad might tell you what they guess like it was a hard fact. Just like anybody else you might bump into.. Unless the worker radio’s in to the yardmaster to ask exactly what you what you to know. Or you might ask the worker whose checking brake lines on your train. Or you might hide from him.. Speculation on what’s going on is a major source of entertainment.. They certainly aren’t going to give out awards
(Yeah were leaving the shit in here that makes no sense whatsoever at first glance)
Now and then, you’ll get purposely wrong information. I’ve always believed rather than flat out fucking with you, it’s because they want to keep you out of trouble during their shift. Or pissed that you startled or kind of scared them just for being a scumbag. Or I mean you are a scumbag..
Were doing ken keseys bus tri nmow1111111111
“Oh sure you want the yard two hindered miles from here”
Or good information from a guy who looks like he never fuckin liked ya.. And never once looks in your eyes but also leaves a spool of copper wire..
“Yeah track one 8 o’clock”
Or they don’t really want to report you like they’re supposed to which gets them busted
I can’t remember exactly how long it was after we got there… but At some point 4 other tramps showed up at the hobo inn: There’s was a long haired, bearded, quiet gent with the thousand yard stare and an Oklahomishness, gaunt, intimidating- humbleness.
His wife, an equally silent native woman. It’s actually not a mans world out here. But not every chick in the world wants to hop freight trains.
A friendly, grass smoking Mexican who was the mouthpiece of the group. Did all the talking
There was also a Native American guy, who was I believe he was thousand yard stare guys brother n’ law.
It took a minute for them to decide we weren’t trained killers from the ftra goon squad looking to fuck their necks and vice versa and vice versa.. Of course the boo dog had to be restrained.. he’s a savage . I don’t think he has a choice cause there’s nothing he enjoys more than unpredictable violence. The type of dog who should have been headed for eternal slumber a long time ago. But ended up with some speed freaks in Eugene..
We sat around talking while they all set up camp in one of the cleanest of the chicken coop buildings.
Mostly the mexican talked, and the others would comment on a subject if they had something to say. I don’t think the lady ever said anything. She doesn’t have any reason to trust us, she’s not at all unfriendly though , and neither are we. They came from the old school. Communal. Help a brother out. , and leave something for the next
people. They pretty much wrote the book on tramping.. Something about the diversity of their group made them seem non-threatening right away… salt of the earth ..
Borrowed knife brings bad luck.
We didn’t know but there was a least one active serial killer Robert silveria riding the rails, killing other hobos at this time..
Chester was worried about this gash on his hand ..He asked if any of those guy’s were packing anything that could kill his perceived infection. The Native American guy looked at Chester’s shived up palm.
“You know you can piss on that to make it heal better”
“Piss on it?”
“Yeah you can piss on it. Uh-huh.. Urine’s is basically vitamins, yeah sterile.. hmm”
“huh. maybe I’ll try that, you’re sure now? Right? Piss ..on ..my hand? you guys
wouldn’t kid a brother on the rails?”
“Nope. true story on that”
The other two men solemnly nodded in dire agreement.
Oklahoma say’s “I’ve done it.” Looking Chester in the eye. He meant it.
The Mexican guy said ..
“Hey I know what’ll help you out.. You guy’s smoke weed?”
I said
“oh Hell Yes!. Well he dosen’t”
Ralph rolls his eye’s on cue “sigh”
“but the rest of us do”
“Damn! I haven’t had any grass to smoke since Spokane.”
A beat up joint gets passed around.. D grade. Got stoned . The type of moment where it all comes together in soft golden hour sunlight of early October .. The sun lit leaves rustling in the wind , pink shadows on the walls, big-big sky, this destroyed old farm that you knew they weren’t gonna let tramps crash out at forever.. in this scene you felt timeless.
“Hey, speaking of piss you guy’s hear about that hantrivirus?”
“that’s stuff that killed some Indians down in New Mexico, what was that a few months
back?” says the Mexican
“yeah they said it wasn’t up this far ..but the shit just got this janitor up in great falls. The man was sweeping up in some basement with no vent, that’s what they said, he huffed that dust of dried out mice urine and the next thing you know .”
“yeah we were thinking that house over there might have it but none of us have died or nothing’”
we kinda joke about it but the shits for real, we been paranoid about it, I guess it feels like the flu at first, then bang! you’ve had it”
“yeah, that’s right, I heard of it. Fucked up, howdya get it,”
The Native American guy looks up from what he’s doing: making a small scale model of a
train out of copper wire that he’d pried out of one of these buildings. He’s got several cars in front of him.. No ones drunk and everybody’s under the big sky.
“You see it is the piss or shit of the deer mouse, dried out and stirred up into the air, one whiff and you’re through.”
“mouse piss?! man that’s fucked up. Whoa- oops”
Stoned he spilled some salsa on one of his train miniatures.. time stood still for a minute
“Uh oh.. I guess that’ll be the dining car”
catholocism is the thing with a heavy dose of
it cracked us up real good , his way of saying it.
“Hey think we could buy some of that weed off you guys?”
“What you got to give for it”
Ralph was the only guy with hard currency and he hates “stupid weed” and loves food..
Chester sweet-talked him..
“Ralph dude”
“WHAT?”
“ I’m gonna get stamps in Cheyenne dude, whadd are you worried about ? ..Ralph. RRRaaalph? c’mon!”
“So fuckin’ what?”
“Ralphy..”
He insists smiling and looking into his eyes.. Those guys we’re so funny! I mean if they weren’t totally incapable of it they could have a TV show! They’d been through so many fights and stickups etcetera.. They were like homeless/violent Abbott and Costello..
We pooled together a 10 dollar food stamp and three seventy-two in cash, and made a drug deal for a dime bag of seedy “Columbian”.. so we’re happy except for ralph who doesn’t smoke grass and contributed the 10 in food money. But was at his funniest when he had something to bitch about.. winery diner
Next day. Almost an entire garbage bag of burgers speedy runs sign
That night we were sitting around and those guy’s came back from town..
.. the Vietnam vet said “yall hungry? want a burger?”
“Burger? sure”
The Indian dude, “dining car” who by the way, I’m remembering was also a
Vietnam vet and had been travelling with his brother n’ law and sister this way for awhile it seemed.. think they fought back-to-back over there and stuck with it onto the closest thing to nam in America which was trains.. I didn’t really think of Native Americans fighting in the Vietnam War but I guarantee you that many gave their lives and still give them to that war.. Anyway he ended up being quite a character and had been fucking with these metal boxes trying to find a way to build a fire in their hut. He’s using these boxes as stovepipes in an attempt to make the smoke flow outside. He got that going. A blaze! Which always makes us think the fire department is gonna show up. But also made flickering light dance around this Haitian level collection of leaning chicken coops and shed like houses. Real stuff. Petrified chicken shit everywhere like old paint drops in an art studio. paint in piles..
Our friends had dumpster dived a whole garbadge bag of burgers and roast beef sandwiches.
“we couln’t eat this all if we tried. Were gonna make it someplace on this . That was the message out of the ethereal arby’s gabadge.. still wrapped, from this magical arbys dumpster that they had felt it’s power on other voyages thru here. It’s no joke. scores like this every night.. that place had a big cow on the sign. I mean we could a had five or six sandwiches each no joke they hit the jackpot! But even for them this bag was I mean funny.
We regrilled the hot roast beef and chese sauce over a chicken shit fire and the wide open sky over the new complex fireplace and dined quite well I thought.. as I looked out at the stars, satisfied ..
Speedy went to town and came back drunk. He would stay up talking to boo I cant say I ever really saw him sleep. I mean speedy could beg up drugs in the middle of nowhere ..in space. Those deep blue eye starring at you ..like Picasso.. like the guy just fell off the watermelon truck as a baby and society has been handing him free liquor and dogs and ever since.
The morning of our third day we gave up on Derail and tigger. Pussyhairs pull battleships..
We had Endless theories as to their fate became our main topic for discussion: married? arrested? Deer mice? They had both been crack heads. Man. I can’t remember many of the scenarios, but we were going to split tonight regardless.
Derail had mentioned going back to Florida to see his family.. After 4 strait years as a road king he didn’t have anything left to prove. My old pal 40 ouncer saw tigger at a dead show about 6 months later “She was drunk, she couldn’t stand up, I asked her
where you and your friend Derail were but she just said she was pregnant. And growled. and didn’t know anything about it, or who I was! I pulled her out of this bush and found her a tent to sleep in, with the people I had this like hell ride with bro, you wouldn’t have believed it, yeah so, ah, what was I saying, but I never saw that sister again. Good to see ya bro!” 40 ouncer was a great man and A true friend and died a few years later..
Prospects for dealing with the yard discussed.. Over a gumbo full of cowboy coffee‘
made from delicious dumpster dived grounds..
I asked our comrades: “you know anything about catchin’ a train south from here.”
The white Oklahoma vietnam veteran seemed to know the most about this yard. He thought for a while.
“I know alot of those hotshots are goin’ south. If you get a south bounder hotshot he’ll take you all the way to Amarilla”
“Is there a way you can tell a south bounder”
“well, they head out west from here, then they hit that junction about a mile west and
drop south, but that westbound hotshot could be goin’ spookaloo just as easy, you gotta ask a worker, if you can find one who’ll talk to you. That yard ain’t nothin’ nice, that’s for sure, that ole bulls a mean somva bitch”
“yeah we met him, a young guy drivin’ a pinto?”
“You met the kid, he’s a real asshole too, but he works the day, the old mans there at night, that’s when you want to go. Don’t be in or around that yard durrin’ the day. The kid will have you locked up. You might get lucky, there ARE times when there’s no bull. But they keep his schedule random, you can’t never tell. He actually said that himself..”
“You think we could walk down to the junction and catch it on the fly when it splits off?”
“Not unless you got those superpowers!”
‘WE had that same idea the last time we came thru” –indian brother
“Once it hit’s that green light it’s gone.”
“is that where you’re goin? south?”
“We haven’t made up our minds yet. You know how it is.. south today. west tomorrow,
yesterday we were thinking about wintering up right here.”
As the sun went down I climbed through the yard with the native man. You had to cross about 30 or 40 tracks get to the other side, but cutting through the yard is the quickest way to get to this country store where I can fill up water jugs and buy canned
food before we go. About 1/3 to 1/2 of those tracks have chains‘ of cars sitting on them.. One of the first things Derail taught is that you always climb over the cars at the little catwalks on the frontsides and backends that the workers use. Always keeping one hand on the handrail.. if you get knocked by a unit at one end of the row of cars the “slack-action” can throw you off and under the wheels. But my friend just goes crawling right
underneath. I cringe to see it. But eventually we jettison into the grave.. then a raod then a market. They must just see bums and trains,
“You don’t care about getting smashed up huh?”
“who me? man fuck it! if I was going to GO.. it woulda been a long time ago, if these trains wanna take me.. that’s our business not yours.” His voice is rouch and tough on that one
He was right, a lot of people out here seem indestructible, and it’s common. Especially among Vietnam veterans..
4 x 4
Both of our groups decided to get going that night. We were together at first, sitting in the high grass on the edge of the yard. Speedy went looking for a ride for our team while we sat watching his gear and the boo dog.
He came back empty handed of information so we decided we were gonna have to get
into the middle of the yard and hide in a boxcar or something. A real man has nothing to under the stars.. they say. We’re hiding.. Set up closer to the action. Staying out of the lights as much as possible.. beaming over the shat-o-lious like something out of close encounters.
Chester got bored ..he was always amped for the next phase of the operation..
So what’s the plan here..”
to not meet the bull bro”- say’s speedy. The exact opposite of amped.. he’s exact opposite of amped..
Fuck it im just gonna go ninja, stealth style around.. and find out what’s up! Watch I’m gonna go find a worker to talk to
“Wouldn’t do that bro.”
Travis just kinda sneered and “what?” stood over speedy walking past..
Whatever the one wanted to do the other didn’t like it! Finally after all this cloak and dagger shit.. Chester found out from a worker that a southbound train is departing from “track 9” Chester came back to tell me
“track 9 Dave” raising his eyebrows and waiting for some kind of argument.. “around midnight”!
That doesn’t necessarily mean the train over there on “track 9” right now is ours, or even that we can figure out which track-track 9 is. The mainline is track one. Or is it zero, what are so we have to count over 8 tracks? We head that direction.. it’s the best lead we’ve got.
We climbed over a zillion strings of cars that night, carrying all the gear on our backs plus our hands are full of water jugs. It’s like creeping through a pit of giant metal snakes. Finally we found what, in theory, is track 9. I dropped my gear and walked all the way down the length of cars in one direction, ralph walked all the way down the other. Keep in mind the “old bull” was sposed to be a real jerk-face! We’re looking for
something we can ride. What we found was that this train is made up of nothing but container carrying flat-cars with no-where to hide. And then we have 48’ers with their cargo bays all the way full. No “no 110’s”. So there aren’t any buckets to get down in
either. That’s the situation for the entire train. I did see a worker coming up the other side of the choo-choo towards me on his 3 wheeler: I hopped over and got his attention, making sure not to startle him,
“excuse me sir, can you tell me where this ones going'”
“south.”
“thanks.”
I don’t know how it happened. maybe Speedy didn’t want to ride on this train with no rides.. Since he was wanted in Montana! And since Chester found it, he wants to ride it. But all of the sudden Chester wants to beat speed down right there in the middle
Yard! I’m not sure! the shit broke out!
“Whoa what the fuck” finding those two squaring off.
“STRAIT UP DUDE I’LL KILL YA!!” something Chester’s been wanting
to do for a while.
The whole thing seemed so stupid. It was obvious jimmy didn’t want to fight. He stayed seated and dint look at Chester.. After having been threatened with death myself I flashed back and somehow lashed out in a rare show of courage.. I faced Chester down,
“Man we can’t be havin’ a fuckin’ freak-out every day! If we split up cool, but let’s get
the fuck out of here first!” he kept coming up on Jimmy and I pushed him back
“NEVER! fuckin push me again Dave!”
“I’ll push you anytime you start that shit, look where we are! your gonna fuck us all up with this shit!,” I could tell if his fists started flyin’ I was first in line,
He would eventually beat some one to death..
“I’m in this man, and this is the closest thing I got to a family right now. We can’t be havin’ this shit” I thought he was gonna sock me, I didn’t know him well enough to tell. Actually maybe not, we’d been through alot of shit together! Besides that’s how I felt about things anyway. He just glared, and walked away.. and dished out AcoupleA blows to one of the train cars we were getting ready to ride..
All this in the middle of this “hot” train yard. Crouched down. workers buzzing on ATV’s someplace. I sat down on a empty track and shook it off, you know the feeling where the fights in your body, but it doesn’t happen.
Chester is the alpha male here no question but he isn’t much of a leader.. my ego’s been boosted considerably, I’ve been standing up to oppression lately..
He came back and apologized, and also said he was surprised he didn’t throw a punch at me
“Well we have that to look forward to”
We laughed it off.. you do get sick of people because everybody should be in a mental insitition. I understand I mean speedy and his killer attack dog, ralph and his redneck goth lame attidude. You want to fuckin punch em’. But im not that pissed of and full of hate and violence. I mean I can feel the presence of god out here. Even if it’s only the god of the dumpster.
Then the air started to come thru the brake lines as the train moved back slightly eastward, which meant that the units had hit on the west side, so far so good. In one of those moments where you decide !fuck it! we decided to lay out on a flatcar and take our chances. We’ll just ride out that way even though were going right past the tower. What the hell, what more can happen? My sentiment exactly. We didn’t want to fuck around finding something else. faith. Right before we moved out we saw the native gentleman from the farm, we explained the situation to him, he shook his head,
“alright good luck to you.” He gave us all a soulful look and was on his way..
Finally we’re pulling out slow-slow sliding twords the tower. Creaakk creaak the engines are pulling.. the cars strain against the couplings, we’re laying down, flat-out, melting into the woodwork,.. pretending we’re invisible for just a few minutes..
I think as the lights of the tower came closer we considered getting off and running for it, but don’t worry we kept our cool, we’re in it now. We’re invisible! + The Jedi mind trick! At this point doing anything else would be like locking the barn after the horse was stolen.. It’s exactly like being in that moment where you’re exiting the store you are shoplifting from. Had to go thru freight trains.. had to go thru depression suicide 10 years after. Had to to write this book. This is pretty fuckin’ nuts tho..
“So I got a warrant in Montana” speedy was scarred to go to jail.
..Only in this case that moment draws on and on. Believe me, if they catch us on this thing we’ll be paying a visit to the crowbar hotel in‘ billings. Speedy again! He was not going to Montana so sir. Wouldn,t catch him there. We’re eye to eye with the tower. The train is really dragging ass, the thought of getting off and running for it sounds good, nothings going on over at the tower though.. No sign of our big cop foe or the kid in the pinto.. then.. BLAST OFF! into the night! Reaching critical mass like getting shot out of an illegal orgasm! Devotion..! trusting the test..
Those three are rolled out on the other side of the this car behind a container that blocks the wind, there’s not really room to sleep 4 across. Nothing to stop us from rolling over the edge of this moving trains in peaceful slumber town either. My old, beat-up, ductaped 150$ bivy-sac, is slightly totally useless except it’s windproof, so I volunteered to be on the wind side. I had the half sleep type dreams that you get on the train all mixed together within the waking.
Laying out on this rusty car, the orchestra of train noise, starlight overhead.. the sensation: like napping on the strange wing of a spacecraft. There’s nothing to keep you from sliding off into the oblivion. and the entire deck is always lurching and tilting. A subtle ride through a pitch-black carnival.. lights from buildings pass, otherwise it’s dark. Nothing around but the cosmos out there. Deep space in 3d. Every once in a while you pass through a huge complex, coal, oil, electricity, with a million lights and fires, and mechanical apparatuses. Really looking like something out of the end of the world. I usually wake when it gets bright because at first it seems like maybe somebody’s got you in their spotlight. Totally exposed. Quite a surreal setting to drop back into from sleep, although in my dreams I’m usually riding the trains, sorta like being in jail for awhile and dreaming about being in jail. It’s easier that way then to dream of being out! and waking up in.
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