Look Out For The Railroad Tracks
“Look out for the railroad tracks!” That was the standard refrain from our parents as we left the house growing up as teenagers driving cars. Not the usual bit of parental advice one expects to hear, but we heard it. All the time. It wasn’t for no reason, though, Actually, it was for a very good reason. See, the little rural town of 6,000 in which I grew up in Alexandria, Indiana, had two sets of active train tracks that criss crossed our sleepy little burg. Getting anywhere required the crossing of at least one, sometimes two set of tracks along the way. There was absolutely no way to avoid them. Every couple of years, there would come the inevitable news that some unlucky Alexandrian had lost their focus for a split second, long enough to enter the train crossing without realizing a train was bearing down on them. I know, it seems impossible that a train could sneak up on you like that, but they can. Especially when crossing those tracks was no longer a special occurren...