Railroad Tracks

After reading Skittles' post about why she has gray hair, I thought I'd post my encounter with some active railroad tracks in the city of St. Louis. Skittles' post actually made me laugh out loud, but at the same time I thought of the horrible things that COULD have happened had her daughter not been smart enough to get out of the car when she did. I, on the other hand, was not the brightest when it came to safety - specifically railroad safety.


Now, if any of you know me personally, you'll know that I wasn't the easiest teenager to have - I caused my parents a LOT of heartache and stress. I'm guessing some of my antics may have helped in filling out my dad's full head of silver hair. To this day, I don't know what my problem was as a teenager - I guess I just wanted to have my fun and I didn't want anyone taking that away from me. Granted, none of the things I did were any fun in the end, but what did I know?

Anyway...on to the story.

It was sometime in summer, I was 18 or 19 and I was working at Dillard's in Crestwood. Now, if you talk to my friend Beth, these were the best times we ever had. It was a blast to work there since there were about 10 of us that hung out a lot. There was Beth (worked with me in Juniors), Erin (worked with me in Juniors), Kevin (worked in Electronics), Linlee (whom you all know, she worked in Cosmetics), Clint (worked on the dock), Dawn (worked with me in Juniors), Elena (worked in "Separates" - I can't really remember the name of her department, but I know it included "Separates"), Diane (worked in "Separates" and the other department that Elena worked in) and me (obviously I worked in Juniors). There were others, but these were the usuals. Most of these people weren't directly involved in this incident, but I thought I'd let you know who everyone was. Anyway...

One night Erin decided to have a party at her house because her parents were out of town. So, we all hooked up and ended up trotting over to Erin's house. I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure I drove Beth and Kevin to the party. At this party, there were several alcoholic and herbal refreshments and I was your usual teenage glutton. I believe everyone mentioned above was there except Diane - of course there were other folks there, but those were the only ones that worked at Dillard's (that I can remember - remember all the refreshments?)

Anywho, the night progressed as did my toxicity level! But, eventually, the night wound down and we all started getting ready to leave. I believe Beth ended up going home with someone else and I was still expected to drive Kevin home. Kevin lived in the city and I lived in the county (he really lived about 15 minutes from me and 30 minutes from Erin). So, Kevin and I drove the 30 minutes to his house (he drove us to his house so I had time to sober up a little). I dropped him off and I headed out. Unfortunately, the back way out of his neighborhood, which took you to the highway, crossed over some railroad tracks. Somehow I got my little Mercury Capri (this picture is of a car that looks just like mine did, I don't have any pics of mine here at work) off the paved road and down in the gulley that the railroad tracks ran through under the highway. Well, for some stupid ass reason, I thought I could get my car over the tracks and back on the road to the highway. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. The undercarriage of my car got stuck on the tracks - with all four wheels now off the ground. Naturally, I wasn't going anywhere, my friggin' wheels weren't even touching the damn ground! Ugh! **You should all know that this is very embarrassing and I have yet to live this story down - so it's difficult to share**

So, after about 15 minutes of me trying to push my car off the tracks (yes, an 18 or 19 year old girl was trying to push her car off the tracks) I decided it was time to call mom and dad. I got my mentally challenged self back into the car and I dialed the number - my mom answered. She had grown accustomed to my late night/early morning phone calls at this point and knew that something was wrong. The first thing she said was, "what's wrong?" I proceeded to tell her that I got my car stuck on the railroad tracks at Loughborough (under highway 55 - back behind the old Schnucks). She asked, "where are you now?" This is where my unadulterated stupidity comes in - I told her, "I'm in my car, why?" All I heard after that was, "GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!! THOSE ARE ACTIVE TRACKS!!!!" I, now scared to death, started crying and jumped out of the car. About the same time I jumped out of the car, a few city cops drove up. I was crying hysterically but through it, I TRIED to tell them what happened. Now, if I hadn't known humility yet, I surely knew it then as the cops immediately started staring at me and laughing. They knew I wasn't exactly sober and that I was just a county kid out of my element. I explained to them that my dad used to be a city cop and that he would kill me when he got there. After they found out my dad was an ex-city cop, they started treating me even better (this is why I like city cops and county cops not so much). They put me in one of their cop cars and called a tow truck (actually a wrecker was needed to get the car off the tracks). My parents finally arrived and the cops let me leave with them (after they explained the situation to my dad). The cops had to actually call ahead to the train company and have them hold back the two trains that were scheduled to pass through as my car was stuck on the tracks. Of course, my parents and I were extremely appreciative of their efforts and we thanked them profusely. Eventually that night was over and about 10 years have passed since - but I've yet to live it down.

So, now you all have a little dirt on me...use it wisely!