Living near the Soo Line tracks on the Michigan side of the Menominee River was great.

I always liked to see and listen to the steam engines as they huffed and puffed and rumbled across the overhead steel structure bridge, blowing their loud whistles and ringing the bell.

Standing on the riverbank, I could see the hobos riding on the steel framework under the flatbed cars.

At night, the big, powerful headlight lit up the bridge real nice.

In the summer of 1959 or ’60, there was a big sawmill auction in Wisconsin, close to a railroad track. From this track, the mill owner had laid his private track to the mill site. The track ran into a huge three-sided shed. In the shed was a massive like-new railroad steam engine to power the mill. He had installed a 5- foot-diameter flat belt pulley to power the equipment.

Well, the engine standing there already on the tracks looked so good I came up with a brilliant idea. I figured I could buy it and get my dad to drive it home, as he knew how to run one. All I had to do was to get the railroad to let us run it on their tracks to Faithorn.

I then figured I could lay about a thousand feet of track to get the engine in the yard. I was standing by myself when the engine bidding started and that was going slow, I bid $600 — a lot of money then — when my dad came over and said, “What are you doing? You cannot assume the railroad will let us use their tracks. Also, you may not be able to lay tracks on the county blacktop to get it in the yard.”

Well, as the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. I now know I was saved by the bell, so to speak. It pays to listen to your parents and elders.

Looking back, that was a great auction day for me, but I was sad to see the engine go to someone else. How many people can say they got to bid on a six-drive wheeler, like-new big railroad steam engine with a nice-sounding whistle and engine bell, plus a big, bright headlight. Those were the good old days, with good memories.