Loco Motives

My earliest recollection of riding a train was in Kiddie Land, a part of the Amusement park, Idlewild, near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Several child sized passenger cars followed an electric version of a red and silver diesel engine that ran in a circular track. Kids were placed single file in the open air passenger cars for the short trip. It was one of the many kid enticing rides of Kiddie Land.

My next memory was a tour in an actual excursion on board a real train. I believe it was a huge black B & O locomotive. I was in the first grade of elementary school and it was our field trip. We were bused to Connellsville to begin our journey. I can remember how massive the cars seemed. The porter was there to help us board. Eager faces of my classmates soon were pressed against windows and the hiss of the engine became louder and the whistle announced we were off. Views of the Youghiogheny River, trees, and hills sped past until we reached our destination in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. There was no tour of the falls. There were too many kids for the teacher to keep track of. Hustled into another school bus, we were shuttled back to school.

The next trip on a train was in Elkins West Virginia. A travel companion and I decided to escape for a mini-vacation. We stayed in a motel over night to limit the stress on our aging bodies. The tour was a six hour trip to Spruce West Virginia. Spruce is a ghost town. The buildings of this old lumber town were razed long ago, but placards explained the businesses locations. It was a pleasant train ride that had several interesting stops along the way to Spruce.

Recently I was able to eliminate an item from my bucket list. I took another train ride, but the difference was it was first class with meals and snacks served in the dining car. The Potomac Eagle left the town of Romney West Virginia. The route follows the South Branch of the Potomac River. Our tour director shared a wealth information of historic homes and sites along the trail. The engineer stopped to allow passengers to ride in a gondola car to view a stretch of the river where bald eagles nest. We weren’t disappointed and saw several.

The meals, snacks, and service were great. It was a truly memorable way to cross off another item from my bucket list.

Kiddie Land

Who can remember from their days of childhood going to Idlewild Park with their parents or friends, bouncing with excitement as they headed toward Kiddie Land? There at entrance were two stone clad pillars and two steps down into the enchanted area of rides for children. A large placard clown wearing white costume, ruffled neck collar, a red nose, holding a bass drum that welcomed kids to this section of the park reserved just for children. Child sized, scaled down amusement rides that were similar to adult versions awaited. Near the entrance was a sleek white and silver electric bus or trolley that ran in a circle on tracks. Close by was a smaller version of a Ferris wheel with caged cars that lifted riders up and over the top, moving much slower than the adult ride.

There was a glossy green turtle that rose up and down while traveling in a circle with several kids on its back. Another ride was miniature that cars circled on a wooden track, most painted red with bright yellow steering wheels. They spun, but didn’t direct the cars. A fake pony pulling a small cart only wide enough for two, maybe three kids; its leather reins to the kids as the ponies rose up and down.

A bevy of boats with room for two kids in the front and two in the back moved through a shallow circular pond. Steering wheels in the boats kept little hands busy and out of the water as “motor boats” hummed along.

Kids had to be fastened into the “”airplanes” hanging from chains. The children pilots again had steering wheels, but an added attraction was the machine guns attached to the fuselage for the front pilots. The breeze as the planes whirled “air born” in a circle actually made the kid feel like he was flying.

But my favorite ride of all was the kiddie car ride. These carts drove along on tracks through a shady twisting two rail track. Each cart had a cranking gear that attached to wheels beneath the cart. The faster a child turned the crank, the faster the cart went. Sometimes the carts would jump the track when a larger kid was showing his or her strength. They would also move up behind a slower moving cart and assist it into moving faster.

 When there was a clear stretch of track close to the attendant at the finish line, a kid could with several quick pumps build up speed. The cart would almost bowl over the attendant trying to stop the hurtling cart with a stiff leg and a foot.

Orderly?

We had an orderly at Frick Hospital that one time impressed and befriended a very wealthy man.  The man set up a a rather substantial endowment for the hospital and would be continued as long as the orderly worked at the hospital. Donny was the orderly’s name. He was old when I started to work at the hospital. Slowly he developed bad habits that management finally had to step in to correct.

I’m sure that one habit started innocently enough. He ate the unclaimed trays of patients who had been sent home before the kitchen could collect them. That progressed to eating untouched food from partially eaten trays. He’d collect untouched items and eat them in the soiled utility room.

Eventually, someone spoke with management and Donny could eat his midday meal in the cafeteria for free, if he stopped eating from patient trays.

Over the years Donny’s white uniforms became at best dirty, greasy gray. He’d wear them for several days before he would wash them. Other staff members made jokes about his clothes. “It’s easy for Donny to put on his uniform in the morning, yellow in the front and brown in the back.” Or he” just leans this clothes in the corner at night, until morning.” Sometimes, he would drink too much and would fall asleep on the hard, wooden benches in the men’s locker room. He would wake with a headache, but he wouldn’t have to change clothes. He was still wearing his “whites.”

Administration finally told him to stop and instead wear fresh operating room greens each day. They “promoted” him to locating missing wheelchairs and carts and returning them to their proper floors.

Each day before starting his rounds, he would laboriously copy the day’s menu on the back of an envelope and share it with staff on all the floors.

They had chili on the Thursday, the day they passed out pay checks. He’d call out as he rounded, “Chili and checks.” On lunches of chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy, he’d share, “Chicken hips and smashed potatoes.”

He called his beer “Polish pop” and his chewing tobacco “West Virginia coleslaw,” and he didn’t like women. He’d walk nearly five miles one way each day, rain or shine, only missing one week of work when he was hospitalized with pneumonia. People would offer him rides. Occasionally he would accept, but he would look in first and if it was a woman, he’d shake his head and walk on.

One day, one of nursing’s secretaries was driving home in a tremendous downpour. She saw Donny walking with his jacket zipped up, hunched over, trying to protect his face from the pounding rain. She stopped. Donny looked inside and shook his head. She leaned over rolled down the window a crack and said, “Donny, if you don’t get in this car right now, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Between the secretary’s threat and the rainstorm, Donny climbed inside her car and allowed her to drive him home.

A Land Without Consequences

How many of us can remember the vintage black and white television sets with rabbit ear antennas? Other than movies, the broadcasts were live and bloopers recorded forever. The programs shown on the television screen were often gray and grainy. Often the picture was wavy or would it would flop vertically or slide side to side. But never worry; those old sets had knobs that would allow the viewer to control those frustrating interruptions, sometimes.

Today interruptions are commercials. Too many, too frequent, and most make no sense at all. The amusing thing about old time advertisements was they were live and that made some amusing bloopers even in black and white.

I remember heroes of yesteryear: the Lone Ranger with his sidekick Tonto, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Cisco Kid and Pancho, and Wild Bill Hickock and Jingles. Who can forget John Wayne and yes, even Ronald Reagan. They were the righters of wrong, the good guys who followed, captured, and jailed the evil-doers. We would often worry when bank robbers, cattle rustlers, and claim jumpers would escape, ride away, then stop to brush out their tracks. But deep down we somehow knew the good guys would win, even when they had to trek across burning sands or over steep mountain trails.

We are now doing the same thing, sitting on the edge of our seats, watching and praying that the criminals of today will be prosecuted, brought to trial, and jailed for the crimes they’ve committed.

We see they’ve used all sorts of ways and devices to hide their trails. They set up organizations, erase emails, use smarmy lawyers, and buy votes. They’ve cavorted with pedophiles, worked with foreign governments, and hobnobbed with the “elite.” They’ve taken money from hardworking taxpayers to pay for their opulent lifestyles. They’ve bought mansions, jet planes, boats, and taken expensive junkets to foreign vacation resorts, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

Just as power-hungry potentates of the past, these politicians have bribed, had illicit love affairs, and yes even committed murders. Seemingly, they hold themselves to a different standard of justice than the average person. Has America become a land without consequences where the elected servants have become the masters? Have the citizens kowtowed to politicians’ incessant greed and hunger for power? Have we become followers, deceived into swallowing the snake oil that they sell?

We the Silent Majority can no longer remain silent. Slowly they’ve eroded our freedom and liberty. They’ve indoctrinated Americans from the cradle to the grave. Our forefathers would have executed them for their crimes or at the very least chased them out of Washington DC tarred and feathered. We must speak out.

Speak to Me

I just saw an article pondering the beginning of speech in human beings. It caused me to research farther. I Googled the phrase “Origins of Language” and of course a plethora of choices appeared before my eyes. Selecting one site, I wanted to see what it had to offer. I was mildly surprised at the theories posed by noted theorists and linguists. Each one of their suggestions shared a common conjecture with a very limited scope.

Each one of their proposals held the same premise; initially man was unable to speak. Like an infant, mankind had to learn how to speak, forming words through mocking animals in trial and error. They proposed that mankind was a dumb beast and language evolved.

The first proposal was called the Bow-Wow theory which is mimicking of animal sounds. It is the suggestion of an onomatopoeic process, where humans heard animals and copied their voices. But that fails on several counts. Who gave the animals their vocalizations? Wouldn’t they have started out with a blank slate as well? Or how does echoing animal sounds equate into actual words with meaning, speech, and language?

The second proposal was called Ding-Dong theory. Theorists propose man’s speech was in response to the essential qualities of objects in the environment, but again, there is no connection between a sound and any real meaning.

The third was called the La-La theory. It introduces the idea that language developed from sounds associated from love, play, and song. It too fails without a bridge between emotional and rational parts of mankind’s ability to speak.

There was also the Pooh-Pooh theory. It holds that speech began with interjections; a spontaneous vocalization to pain, surprise, and other emotions. No language has enough interjections to cover clicks, intakes of breath, and other noises with speaking and those noises would again have little relevance to paring of vowels and consonants.

Yo-He-Ho theory says speech began from grunts, groans, and snorts emitted during heavy labor. It may account for the rhythmic quality of speech, but does little to explain where words came from.

A much better explanation comes from the Bible. Mankind had language from the beginning. In Genesis, God speaks with Adam and Eve in Eden. They replied to His call, so they had speech from their Creation. When God asked Adam about his sin Adam answered God.

Adam was also instructed by God to name to each anima and until God divided mankind’s speech pattern at the Tower of Babel, people spoke one language. They were able to communicate with one another. God’s Word answers exactly how human speech occurred, how it happened, and why different languages are used today.

Really Rough Sledding

Winter isn’t my favorite season of the year. Even as a child, it was a time for doing things indoors. The lure of the sled was the major draw to get me to play outside in the snow. Flexible Flyer sleds were the most common brand and it was the brand I had.

Three shiny thin wooden slats were bordered by thicker pieces of wood; one on each side of the main body. Thick wooden braces supported the thin slats from underneath. They allowed kids to belly slam themselves onto the sled without breaking it. Another yoke-shaped piece of wood on the front allowed the sled to be steered. A short length of binder twine or rope looped through the its holes permitted the sled to be towed behind the owner.

Two painted red steel rails curved up at the front end and several upside down v-shaped braces supported the sled body and the body of the rider. The number of braces depended on the length of the sled. Similar metal pieces ran the length of the sled connecting at the front. It attached the steering piece to the runners.

When we got older, we rode our sleds on Coal Bank Hill Road. It was a less traveled, unpaved road with curves and steep slope. At the bottom was Route 711. The traffic was heavier. Because of high banks, riders couldn’t see oncoming traffic, so riders had to be extra skillful turning their sleds to run parallel to the highway on the berm or to roll off the sled stopping short of the traffic.

When rod crews spread antiskid ashes on the road to give vehicles traction, sometimes clunkers would grab a runner and bring the sled to a sudden stop. Many riders, including me, lost buttons from coats as we slid over the front of the sled doing a face plant in the snow.

Because of our adventurous nature, we helped the neighbor boys build an “Our Gang” type of snow contraption from spare pieces of wood and old car parts. Because of its weight and after several rides, it was abandoned. It took two kids to pull it and no one wanted to drag the heavy beast back to the hilltop for another ride.

Some other friends made a toboggan from a long piece of corrugated aluminum roofing. The sled was lightweight, able to fly over the snow without sinking in. It slid so fast and far on its maiden run. We were all scared as the toboggan jumped a deep ditch at the bottom of the hill. It came to rest halfway across a cow pasture.

Recession Depression Revisited

The panic from the Corona 19 virus whether from the virus itself or the promotion of its virulence, has caused a worldwide uproar. The shutdown of businesses, travel, and the quarantine of workers has caused an intense impact on families, here in the United States and in countries all around the planet. Its intrusion into everybody’s existence is nearly unbelievable.

Before the C19 collision with civilization, there were media reports on children going to bed hungry. Many organizations existence was solely based on reaching out to them and supplying their needs. Relief organizations gathered donations and sent food stuffs to curtail those starving in foreign lands. Their herald pierces many generous hearts and the donations have eased the suffering and diminished its torment.

Now, the shutdown and quarantine has ripped the bandage off this terrible wound. Hunger again will gain the upper hand. Starvation isn’t sudden exsanguinations, but rather the slow death drawn out over many weeks and months. The loss of products and finances in the homes of the United States will hasten a severe impact all over the world.

Forty percent of deaths from the Corona Virus in America occur in nursing homes. Old age homes are where Americans warehouse and stockpile the elderly who have “outlived their usefulness.” Would the incidence of death have been lessened if we cared for our elderly as do our Amish friends and neighbors? It is reported sunshine and fresh air has a major impact in defeating C19. The elderly are for the most part kept inside, often isolated in their rooms. Even with the “protective barriers” in place, the caretakers move from one client to another. Unless the caretaker, which is impossible, showers and has a complete change of clothing and shoes, viruses and germs will be transferred from one person to another.

I know that I am older, 71 years old to be exact, but I don’t fear death. I don’t relish the thought of ending my life tight now, but I do know that I’d rather pass into eternity in a quicker death than a long drawn out wasting away from starvation.

Politicians have changed our onetime masked cowboy hero’s television introduction of, “A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver! The Lone Ranger!” into “With a virus curse, a cloud of fear, and a home alone order, they take our jobs away and steal our silver.”