7-25-10...A TRAGEDY
I know for a fact that even with the had things we went through as kids we were still some of the most Blessed kids in the world. Thinking what others my age had to endure then just brings that home to me more.
There was another house that was right on the tracks like ours. I had a friend who lived in that house and I could walk up the RR right of way and go there in about 10 minutes. I visited her often and I can see that house like it was yesterday. It was fairly large and good thing it was because they had 10 kids in that house. My Friend, (I'll call her Ella) lived there with that huge family and she was the baby of the group. We were probably about 10 then. She and Brenda never developed the friendship that I had with Ella.
Ella's Mom and Dad were jolly and good but never had the time they needed to spend with their kids even though you could see the love they had for them. The older ones took care of the younger ones mostly. There was only one boy in the whole 10 of them and he stayed in the woods for reasons obvious.
Ella's Daddy was a farmer and he worked hard just like my Daddy did in the coal mine. He was a big man. He had an old tractor that had seen it's better days. He was out on the tractor cutting hay one day at dinner time and Ella's Mamma sent us to take him water and food.
He was quiet a ways from the house and as we got closer we could hear the tractor running and see smoke rising in the air.
We never suspected anything was wrong and just took our time getting there. What we saw when we did get there was the tractor burning. We didn't see her Dad at first but as we ran closer the tractor exploded and we say her Dad crawling toward a little creek close by. His clothes were on fire and he was screaming. Never before or since have I heard such a sound. A high pitched moan. The grass was on fire but wasn't spreading much because it was green.
We ran on to the creek and her Dad was lying in the edge of the water and he was quiet. The smell still haunts me sometimes. Mostly the memory has been blocked out of my mind. Very seldom does it come back.
Her Dad was already gone but we really didn't know that. He was black and charred.
WE ran back to the house as fast as we could get there and told what we could. Ella's Mom sent me home and told me to go to the only neighbor who had a car and ask for help. I did that and the people sped off in their car.
I went home and it took me a while but I told Mamma what had happened.
All the neighbors walked up the track to try and help. All of us kids stayed together in one house with older ones to watch us.
Ella and her family moved away after that and I never saw them again but I know, now even better than then, how hard they must have had it in years to come.
The house sold and the new family were middle aged with no kids. Mamma went up the track from time to time and visited with the woman but I never wanted to go with her.
It was a terrible thing to happen and made my Parents seem even more precious to me.
