The Train Robbery:

I played as a child on the railroad tracks. Not the most usual play area I know but when you live on a train I guess the local track is like anyone else’s front yard. I lived in what was called an outfit car. My grandfather was a carpenter on the bridge and builders gang at the time. On the occasion of the incident described here we were parked in our home town of Glenn’s Ferry Idaho.

Most of my friends were in this small town at that point in my life. The two Irving brothers and a kid named Dick Isenheart were my best friends then. I was 10 going on 11 years old at the time.

Being bored and having little to do we were messing around by the creek under the railroad bridge when a freight train was put on the siding near where we were playing. We noticed a group refrigerated cars (rare at that time and not truly refrigerated just packed with ice) with the word Hershey’s CHOCOLATE on them.

The doors on the cars were sealed of Crosse but living on a train I was familiar with the fact that the access doors on top of them were left open to allow ice to be put into the car.

What 11 year old have you ever seen who does not recognize the word “Hershey” a rolling gold mine was the thought we all had. After much persuasion on the part of the Irvings, Dick and I decided to help them acquire some candy bars that they were to sell and split the money with us.

I crawled into the car and was passing cases of candy up to the rest of them. Being inside the car I was not aware that they all ran when our local cop showed up. Seeing a couple of kids on the top of a refrigerated car left little imagination as to their purpose in being there. The next thing I knew was the fact that I was handing a case of almond candy bars to my favorite adversary. The cop !

Well you guessed it, I was arrested for train robbery. As a result I got to spend six months in a little known resort call Saint Anthony Idaho. I was billeted with the cream of the Idaho youth. Thieves and thugs of all descriptions. I learned a lot about how to hide my feelings there and to shut myself off from everyone.

Before I left for this nice vacation I told my good buddy the cop that I would get even with him. That will be the subject of tomorrows little paragraph of my life.

This is almost like the old radio programs isn’t it?