A RIDING THE RAILS ADVENTURE

Seventeen year old Everette Ray Strahl was not about to argue. He was looking down the barrel of gun. When he set out on his own in search of adventure, riding the rails ... a cheap form of transportation and generally safe ... he hadn't counted on this. Dutifully, young Everette slowly reached into his pocket and extracted a small wad of bills ... a very small wad ... and handed them over to the robber. When the robber turned and started to walk away with his loot, young Everette called out to him to "wait a minute". When the robber turned around to see what his victim wanted, it was his turn to look down the barrel of a gun. You see, the robber didn't bother to pat down the young man or even ask if he had a gun ... much to his misfortune ... for young Everette not only relieved him of his gun, but also of all the cash the robber now had. Looking at the bundle of bills, young Everette wondered how many other rail riders fell victim to this man. Now, it just so happened that a freight train was chugging slowing down the track toward them. Young Everette, still pointing the gun, motioned toward the freight and very politely suggested that the robber hop aboard the open box car as it passed and "just keep on going". The robber complied, after all, a gun pointing at you speaks more forcibly than words. The robber turned to look back at the young man standing along the track still pointing the gun. The young man gave him a friendly wave then pocketed both guns and the money as the freight chugged away down the track. He watched until the train was but a small worm in the distance and decided that he would definitely catch a freight going the opposite way.

Everette Strahl was my father, your grandfather and great-grandfather, and yes, he did leave his father's farm and rode the rails when he was seventeen (between 1917-18). His was the era of hobos who spent their lives going from one to place to another hitching a ride on a freight car and knocking on doors asking to work for food. He couldn't have rode the rails for long as when he was 17-18, he joined the army and served probably in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, the military aviation service of the United States army from 1914 to 1918, and a direct ancestor of the United States Air Force, where he learned to fly a plane. However, World War I ended and so did his dreams of becoming a pilot. He never saw combat.

Everette Ray Strahl born August 27, 1901, died January 16,1983

Riding the rails was a common event after the Civil war, but it did not reach its peak until after the crash of 1929 and the resulting depression.