"Barber on the Train"

Leo was a barber who worked in Clint's Barber Shop a few doors down from my dad's drugstore. Leo was my friend Bobby's dad. Bobby, upon graduation, had joined the US Coast Guard, but they released him because it was discovered that he was color blind. When I underperformed at the University of Chicago, I went to the post office to join the U. S. Navy, but only the Coast Guard recruiter was there. I certainly didn't want to join that chicken s**t outfit that didn't take Bobby, so I opted to wait another week for the navy recruiter. Luck had it that I ended up at Western Michigan University instead.

...but back to Leo. I have no idea that the amazing story that Leo told was true, but I had no reason to doubt its accuracy. Leo told us that he had worked on the Haywire Rail Road, (really the Ann Arbor R.R.), before he started barbering. The Haywire would run to Shingleton a couple of times a day to pickup rail cars loaded with iron ore and other materials, to be shipped from Manistique on the car ferry. The car ferry provided passive sport for the people of Manistique. On any given evening, we would load the family into the car and either watch the car ferry load up or watch the Soo Line train stop at the train station. Both sports were equally entertaining.

One particular day, Leo was riding in the Haywire caboose, as the train chugged toward Shingleton on its daily run through the woods. The engineer called back to Leo on the walkie-talkie, “Look out on the right side of the train!”

Leo took a look out the window and spotted a deer running alongside the train. The doe, apparently wanted to get to the other side of the tracks, but the train was in the way, so she was running alongside the train until it passed. As the caboose edged closer to the deer, Leo grabbed a knife, and he jammed a flare into his belt. Leo climbed down the steps of the caboose, waited until the deer was alongside, and jumped on her back. With lightning speed, he sliced her neck, and the two of them tumbled into the brush. Except for a few bruises, Leo was fine. The deer took a last breath, then died.

Leo field dressed the deer, then waited about three hours for the train. When he heard the train coming, Leo lit the flare. The train stopped, they loaded the deer onto one of the cars, and headed for Manistique. When the train got to the Haywire station, Leo got off, and unloaded the deer, before the train continued on to the docks.

From then on, Leo was always my hero.