Leo and list
Your mentioning having a lawyer for a brakeman brings to mind that there was
one on the Wymore Division when I was there...He was probably a very smart
guy, but lived in a house with a bunch of kids which could conservatively be
called a "hovel"...he had been fired numerous times for drinking, but always
seemed to get back...I worked with him on one occasion...he wore overalls
that were always fillthy and whose straps were supplemented with old train
order string (red). He wore an old "bus drivers cap"...(I hated it when the
Q and later Amtrak went to this style rather than the old stovepipe style).
OWW III you dad will know who this is his intials were VC.
This guy had some brothers also on the Wymore who were good trainmen..I think
one who's name was John worked until just a few years ago.
Not long after I moved back to Lincoln (1979) I saw in the Lincoln paper that
he (VC) had been picked up for vagrancy somewhere around downtown Lincoln.
Also when I first came back to Lincoln I was doing some real estate work and
was closing a sale at a lawyer's office in Wilber, NE. After we had finished
I was visiting with one of the attorneys...My railroad days happened to come
up in the conversation (surprise--surprise)....One of the attorneys asked me
if I knew VC...I said that I did.
He then told me that he had gone to law school with VC, and one one oc
casion..I think it was while VC was still braking he had gotten drunk and was
thrown in jail. he Called his law school friend (name was Joe V.) and asked
him to represent him..Joe, of course knew that he would never get paid, but
agreed to do it anyway on the condition that VC would keep his mouth shut
while in the court room...VC agreed to do that, but when they got in there VC
couldn't resist the urge to "represent himself" and ended up getting thrown
in jail anyway.
I don't know whether VC was ever promoted to Conductor...he had enough
seniority at the time I was there to have been....
Anyhow the above has nothing to do with anything, but it reminded me of a
story...My wife says "EVERYTHING REMINDS YOU OF A STORY"...well that's the
joy of growing old and living in the past.
Pete
OWW III contact me off list if you want to know who VC is...However if you
pass this story to OWW II I think he will know without any prompting
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