My Great Aunt Jessie Sampson Remington was outspoken and funny at the same time. Aunt Jessie used metaphors before anyone knew what they were. Once when relatives were wandering the park trying to find the family's shelter, she shouted "You're in the right church, but the wrong pew!". Aunt Jessie was at her finest, though, the day of the train ride.
Aunt Jessie had a ticket to leave for Houston Texas the day after my grandfather's funeral. Mom asked my then to be husband, Ray, and me to take her to the train station. When the train sat for boarding noone stood to take Aunt Jessie's ticket or to carry on her suitcase. Aunt Jessie declared "on, I go". My fiance said he would carry the suitcase. A few minutes later, to my shock, the train took off with Ray who needed to go east to be back on duty at Ft. Meade Maryland the next morning, and who had my mom's car keys in his pocket, was now headed west, not east. Feeling helpless, but wanting to help, ran the fastest I could beside the moving train , shouting "no, stop, stop, he shouldn't be on there!!!" According to Ray's account Aunt Jessie began shouting statements on the train like "I'm having a heart attack"; "There are no gentlemen who work on this train!!" "Stop this train"!. The train attendant and Aunt Jessie had a heated discussion as the attendant said a train this big could not be stopped at whim. Ray was on for the ride. Outside, I stared down the track and saw the long passenger train slowly come to a stop. Ray walked off.
We arrived back to Mom's house. "Well, did you get Aunt Jessie off ok?", she asked. "Yep, she's on her way, we replied, but it was not as easy as you might think." Funny Friday--The Stop the Train story comes up often, and always brings tears of laughter as we remember Aunt Jessie.
I love metaphors...we were only talking about them the other day at work...one of my favourites is "it's better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick" - most anything would be I reckon....love the story about the train too....my grandfather used to catch the train to visit us and we would always take him to the station when he went home. My mother always insisted on walking onto the train and making sure he was in the carriage comfortably etc - I was always terrified that the train would take off and we would go with him!
ReplyDeleteLove your stories , Mom. Most of which I'm hearing for the first.time. I laugh at the image of you running after the train! Love you
ReplyDeleteWhat a cute story. It made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteGreat story! Guess with all the fuss the engineer decided it was best to just stop the train.
ReplyDeleteVery funny!
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