Following the Job of a Railroad Man

Dad had gotten a job on the railroad, for which he traveled back and forth across the state. He decided that Bellefontaine was a more convenient place to work from with his new job. So, at age three, we moved to Bellefontaine, Ohio. We lived there in a large house for a couple of years, originally with my Dad’s friend, Norm, and his wife, Anne. After they moved out, My Aunt Bert (Uncle Bob’s twin sister) lived with us for a while.

It was there that I started my musical education. Mom or Dad signed me up for tap dancing lessons…I think it was something Dad had always wanted to learn. (And after all, I had mastered walking by then, more or less.) My tap dancing career was short-lived though, as I was too stupid to know that I had to practice, or how to practice, or even what “practice“ was…and Dad was a very “understanding” taskmaster. Since I wasn’t living up to his expectations, one night in a fit of anger, with many tears and hurt feelings on my part, Dad took my tap shoes away, and that was the end of it (there were many more such experiences to come). There is more on the tap dancing later.

If memory serves, Dad had a blue 1946 Hudson at that time, though I might have some of the car ownership details confused; I was only three, after all.

Dad worked on the railroad first, then as a milkman, when the railroad job ended (or perhaps he was doing both at the same time). I was never privy to the whys and wherefores of Dad’s career till I was considerably older, so I don’t have much information there, except that he had many different jobs during my early years, including that of a door-to-door cosmetics salesman. That will come up again later in the story, or perhaps that’s one of those things best left out… just have to see how I feel about it when the time comes.

He also used to play baseball and softball with friends and local league teams. At least, that’s what I think they were, looking back on it.

To be continued

–LE