Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for May 22, 2022

My mother told me that this happened to one of her brothers back in the 1930’s. I believed that it was a true story when she told it to me, but I can’t be certain that it actually happened.

Good morning memories all empty.

When telling a train story, you shouldn’t let your one-track mind derail…

Why yes Walt, yes you did tell this story.

He was interviewed by a Navy reporter, commemorating Walt being the last survivor of a ship that sank in mined waters.. in World War I !!!

This part of the story was Walt describing his journey from the farm in Tomah, Wisconsin to the city where he ended up enlisting in the service (and picking up the sailor cap he’d wear basically from the beginning of the strip until his marriage to Phyllis Corkleigh-Blossom).

January 13, 15-18, 1996: https://i.imgur.com/XckS1OW.jpg

It’s sad when you lose it—no matter what your age.

I was under a bridge on top of one of the abutments when a train went over the bridge!

Are you Pete or Repeat, to those two it doesn’t seem to matter!

reminds me of my uncles war stories……what i wouldn’t give to hear them one time…….

We all come in with an empty mind. We all go out the same way. Weird.

no joke

Walt was a lot thinner back then.

I would have expected for the story to get longer over time. Not that you’ve remembered more, you just have more time to tell it. And, of course, embellish it a bit more each time.

Folks used to put an ear to the tracks to try and see if they could tell if a train was coming before they tried to cross the trestle. Vibrations would get there long before the train would.