Railroaders place to shoot the shit.

When Uke was five, or six years old... Neighborhood kids introduced roof jumping as a 'really cool' thing ta do. The trip was off a fifteen foot high roof, landing in a pile of very soft cork dust, which was like landing in talcum powder. You'd hold your breath going off...and the cork dust would break your fall. The downside? That shit could choke ya ta death if ya breathed it inta yer lungs...or ya got knocked out hitting yer head! Plus my mom worked in the plant, making gaskets, and shit.

That was back in the 1950s, when we still had cork gakets. She knew by the stink of the red shit in my ears, nostrils, and rhe leftovers in my pockets, and yep...in my drawers. She'd whack my ass, then send me ta bed without supper.

When the ol' man came home later from the papermill he'd give me a beating, just for good luck. A week or so later, it was playin' in the Erie's nearby yards, and ridin' the trains...