Walking the Railroad Tracks

Have yawl ever walked the railroad tracks?  When I was growing up, me and my Granddaddy would walk the railroad tracks to Latham's Grocery store.  I remember walking down the railroad one day and just as we got in front of a neighbor's house who lived just off of the railroad tracks, she walked out and yelled at my Granddaddy.  He left me standing on the tracks and walked over to a gated fence in front of her house.  They were shooting the breeze and I stood on the tracks waiting patiently.   Granddaddy wasn't that far away from me.  A clap of thunder came out of no where.  Scared the daylights out of me and I started screaming and having a hissy fit.  Granddaddy bounded back onto the tracks to calm me down.  I thought the thunder was a freight train barreling down on me.  And, no, that wasn't the last time that I walked those tracks.  We used to lay pennies on the tracks and after a train passed, we would go back and look for the pennies. 

We used to pick cotton beside the tracks and the conductors would go by and throw out a handful of candy to us little "cotton pickers".  Fun fun! 

Of course, the railroad tracks weren't such fun for my Mom.  Years ago, she was going to work one morning.  There were no bars on the tracks that came down when a train came along.  It was just before daylight.  She said that she did not think that the train blew its horn and did not see the light from the train.  That train was right upon her.  It hit her car and totalled it.  One of the most frightening calls that I have gotten in my life was someone telling me that my Mom was hit by a train.  Of course, we left Atlanta and drove over to the hospital.  She had broken ribs, etc.  We went into the hospital room and it was so somber.  Poor thing.  She could barely move.  Everyone was in shock that this had happened to her.  My sister was almost in tears.  Well, the fact was that as soon as her ribs healed, she would be okay. She was one lucky person.  However, to break the mood, my husband started singing "Grandma got run off by a freight train", to break the mood.  Needless to say, that went over like a lead balloon.