Jim Ed's Wild Ride

Years ago a friend of mine told me about Jim Ed's ride.



It seems that somewhere back in the 40's or 50's some young men were hanging out by the depot in Middleton Tennessee. As it often happens, three girls drove up in their car to see what was going on. Now you would have to see Middleton to understand that there isn't much there at all, a hardware store, small tire store, masonic hall, and maybe a service station at that time. The boys were eying the girls as boys always do unless something is wrong with them. The girls were uninterested or at least pretended to be. The more disinterest shown the more the guys began to act fools and grab-ass around.



Well as luck would have it, Southern Railroad's passenger train number 36 rolled in, picked up a couple of passengers and some mail. Jim Ed saw his chance to go down in history as a dangerous man. Girls like reckless guys though not all of them will date these dare devils. So three or four minutes passed. The conductor walked up the steps of the passenger gar with his little stool and closed the door. The train was already moving. Jim Ed ran for one of the steps on the mail car. He jumped on and held to the vertical hand rails glancing over his shoulder to catch one of the girls covering her mouth in amazement. The other two were riveted to the scene. Now you understand that Jim Ed planned to ride for less than one hundred feet and jump off, but he didn't consider the line of box cars on the side track preventing him form making his exit without crashing against one of them. So by the time Jim Ed was clear of a half dozen freight cars the train was going too fast to jump off. There was nothing to do but hold on. The girls were half screaming half laughing in amusement but with a hint of concern as Jim Ed continued to accelerate. His buddies realized that their friend had to hold on until he reached Corinth Mississippi some twenty miles away. They jumped in an old Mercury throwing gravel as they hit the pavement making a small squeal as the tires grabbed. The glass pack mufflers roared as they made their way to U.S. Highway 72 and turned east toward Corinth. The old car sat low to the ground and bellowed toward their lost comrade. Somewhere just west of town they met Jim Ed walking home. He smiled from behind an embarrassed face and beneath a shock of uncombed hair. The boys did a U-turn in the highway and pulled over in front of the hiker. They bailed out and met him as he came upon the rear bumper. He looked a little shaken but did his best to cover his mild shock with " boys, how bout that ride?" They laughed and smacked him around a little, then noticed that the windy ride had beaten every button off the front of his shirt.

This ain't no shit