Re: Memorial Day Musings from Many Years Past.

Kelly Anderson Wrote:
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> Mike Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > I think the fact you've worked so many places
> serves
> > as a testament to the trust and respect owners
> > have for you as a railroader.
>
> Or it's a testament to Earl's bad luck when it
> comes to finding stable employment in this
> industry. I count myself very fortunate to have
> had only one employer for the last thirty five
> years, even it it has been on a too short railroad
> in a really crappy climate.

How true. It was never my intention to be a "boomer". I left the C&TS in 1998 because I saw where the new management was headed, and my wife needed the kind of medical care that not only did not exist in Chama, it didn't exist in the rest of the state of NM either. I ended up in TX working for the Ft. Worth and Western. Less that a year later, they sold out of the passenger biz to some outfit from Michigan who not only did not pay into RR Retirement, they didn't have any health insurance program - that was the deal breaker. I got hired with a road up in Wichita Falls, sold the house in Ft Worth, moved up there, bought another house. That outfit lost it's biggest customer 6 months later and they laid me off. I stayed up there for a few more years, hanging on by contract work, a stint back in Chama, a job up in Oklahoma, and another out in west Texas. Eventually I hooked up with Iowa Pacific and moved to Globe AZ. IPH moved me to ALA and later to Rusk, TX before we parted company.