Held by the Train

I had been told many times that I was going to school in the Fall. I had no real idea what it all entailed. We didn't have pre-school or beginner pre - K or nursery learn at will school. We just had Kindergarten. There were 2 schools in Waseca, well school is a little overkill. Were they a school? Yes, technically they were. Were they school buildings? Not entirely. The 2 classroom brick building is where Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, and Grade 4 went to. Talk about a split class !! School was about 2 km away from home. There was no such a thing as a bus for town kids. We walked or rode our bikes. To get to the school, one had to cross the infamous railroad tracks. Those were my nemesis. Canadian National Railway ran tracks through the town and it was a busy set of tracks. The beat up old path crossed the tracks in the center of town and if there was a train crossing, you just waited and waited. What did young kids do when the train stopped for a length of time? We either climbed over the top of the car connections or we scooted underneath the rail car. Both of these actions of course were highly dangerous and punishable by amputation. I had nightmares at night about trains. It was the punishment of doing crazy things around them I guess. In my nightmare the train chases me through town. It did not even need tracks, it just came after me - light bright and horn blowing. We used to count the number of railway cars that each train pulled. My record was 188 cars. A train of 6 engines pulling half of Canada from one end to another, and we as small children got to witness the whole thing. However, to a kid who wanted to go home after school - it was annoying having the train inch along the tracks taking up precious time when there were things to do and places to explore. My hatred towards trains started then I believe and it has continued through to this day. I had started to talk about school but the train has once again derailed my thoughts and created a rolling roadblock to my memories !!