I knew he would be home from work soon!
Because I heard the train whistle blow from the diesel engine sharp and bright in the air.
Daddy was a railroad man. He was the engineer for the freight train from Aberdeen to Durant. One day to Durant, spend the night, the next day back to Aberdeen where we lived. His presence at home was special!
He started out as a train luggage loader. The long, heavy wooden wagons had metal wheels, and when loaded were very heavy. Daddy was always strong. One winter day it was icy and cold. When he was pushing the heavy flat wagon, he slipped a bit.
Enough for the brutal wheel to roll over his ankle.
Did he stop? No, he worked right on. That’s the kind of man he was. He pushed and loaded at the train station until he became the man who shoveled the coal into the engine to enable it to speed down the track.
Now, that was a hot, hard job. He got so many muscles in his arms, biceps, back, and shoulders that he could hold his arms straight out and mama could grab hold and swing back and forth! After being a fireman he became the engineer.
He was a soldier in the army. Again he was a train engineer. He drove the train taking supplies and medicine to our troops. He drove in to get the wounded out and back to medical care. Although he didn’t tell me a great deal about his experiences, he did tell me that the tracks had so many dead soldiers on them that they became slick and greasy. The tracks had to be salted for the train to get through.
He was a hunter. He walked with his coon dogs through the dark woods listening to their deep bass voices and knowing what they were doing. . . Catching a scent, tracking a coon, treeing a coon, or a coon on the ground! He also went squirrel and deer hunting. He took me along with him, and I always felt special, accepted, and included to be allowed to walk quietly with him.
He was a builder! He built all kinds of things; pens for dogs, my pet raccoon, storage buildings; playhouses; brick patios and more. Maybe his buildings leaned a bit, but they stood for a long time.
He was a mechanic fixing our cars, a fisherman teaching me, and most of all he was a Christian man I trusted and loved, watched and learned from, listened to and talked to as I grew up.
Mark 7:10 tells us: “Honor your father and your mother.”
I do honor my father, love him, and miss him.
