The Christmas Train

My Mamaw’s dad was named Vertice Delk.  He was raised in Eastern Kentucky, and had four brothers and three sisters. 

The girls had fairly normal names – Ruby, Inez and Mackie.  The boys were Vertrice (Bert), Clifton (Click), Kellious (Mutt), Tellious (Ted) and … Fred. I guess after coming up with names like Kellious and Tellious, they decided to keep that last one simple.  And no, Kellious and Tellious were not twins.

They grew up poor in an old house on the banks of the Green River in the early 1900’s. The front of the house was on stilts and the back was built into the hillside.  

Because the floor sat right on the dirt, it was rotting.  The rotting left about a six-inch gap between the wall and where the floor was more solid.  Rats had taken advantage of this dirt area and dug holes leading into the house.

This sets the scene for the story about the Christmas Train that was told to my dad by his great uncle Ted:

“The Delk boys rarely got anything for Christmas, but one year their dad saved some money and bought them a second-hand toy train.  He brought it home and hid it in the backroom of the house.

The boys all played in that room with the rotted floor and rat holes.  Bert was the oldest and about twelve years old at this time.  Ted, the youngest was still in a gown (meaning a toddler in diapers). 

Bert was nosing around in a pile of junk in the corner of the room and found the train! The boys opened the box and started looking at it.

There was a big, black engine with a wind-up key on the side, a coal car and a caboose.  The caboose had a little man standing on the back wearing an iron hat and waving.

Bert decided they should try it out.  The older boys leveled out the floor as best they could and put the track together while little Ted just stood and watched in his gown.

Bert hooked the cars together and set them on the track.  Then he took the engine and wound the key as tight as he could. He held the engine and key in place with one hand, and hooked it to the cars with the other.

When he sat the engine on the track, he let go of the key.  It was wound so tight that when he released it, sparks flew off the rails!

It was going so fast that when it reached the turn, it jumped the track and hit the floor.  The boys swear it picked up speed and then headed straight for a rat hole.

Ted said the last thing he saw was the little man on the back waving as he went into the hole. They could hear the wheels spinning and the spring unwinding somewhere down in the hole, but they were unable to retrieve it.

That was the first and last time the Delk boys got to play with the Christmas Train.”

Happy Holidays!