When I was a kid my dad worked for the Kansas City Southern Railroad. Almost all of the men dad worked with had a junky work truck or car they would drive and leave in the parking lot at the depot in Heavener. Dad would drive an old car and leave it there for a day or two until he returned from driving the train. So would other men. They were always messing with each other’s work vehicles. The recent elections made me think of this story.
The way a railroader’s life works in Heavener is they take a train to Pittsburg, Kansas or to Shreveport, Louisiana. Then most of the time they have to wait a day or two to bring a train back. So, their work vehicles stayed parked in the depot parking lot for a couple of days at a time. This made it easy for a coworker to put a dead skunk in someone’s car, or mess with the mirrors, windshield wipers, put a whistle in their tail pipe or some outrageous bumper sticker on the back bumper. The list of ways a person’s work car could be messed with goes on and on…
I remember one year someone my dad worked with was really supporting a certain person running for office. This railroad employee had a huge campaign sign mounted in the bed of his work truck. This truck would be parked so the campaign sign was visible from the road. It was actually a really smart way to get the candidate’s name out there.
The guys dad worked with were always pulling pranks on one another. So in typical railroad fashion, when the truck with the campaign signs was parked one day, a bunch of campaign signs for the other candidate were posted all over this guy’s truck and around it. It had nothing to do with politics or the candidates, it was purely a chance to give a coworker a hard time. It could have been a football game, one guy supports one team in a big way, so his coworkers buy caps and shirts and root for the other team, only to aggravate a coworker.
This started a sign war amongst the railroaders. It went on all the way to election day. The same signs would be moved from vehicle to vehicle as train crews went in and out. It lasted quite awhile, because I went with my dad to get more campaign signs one day. I don’t remember who the candidates were or which one won or lost. I just remember my dad laughing and several of his coworkers laughing about moving those signs to the next vehicle.
The only time I remember dad getting upset was when someone said he wasn’t a good bass fisherman. That was ok with me though, because dad and I fished more than ever. Its funny the things you remember after your parents are gone. Dad griped about working for the railroad, but I think he really enjoyed the men he worked with. Joe, Tommy, Buck and my dad. They had a lot of fun at work over the years.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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