On the train home the other day I heard what sounded like an explosion. Two kids in the woods, perhaps 12 or 13 years old, were throwing large stones at the VRE train. It missed the window where I was sitting and hit between the windows. Sure woke me up fast and I was able to spot them in a remote section of woods between Rolling Hills and Burke Center station.
I’ve seen kids throw rocks at freight cars but never at passenger trains. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. It’s not just terrorists you have to watch out for.
…For sure, those kids throwing the rocks aren’t rail fans…It is sad that these fellows have no feeling for what they are doing…What will be their direction as they grow into adults…Not a good trend.
Back in the “good old days” we used to carry wrist rockets in our grips with a baggie full of iron ore pellets. Gave them little bastards a taste of their own medicine.
IT went out the door with “The Family” and “Prayer” in school. [:(!]
Respect is something that is taught and learned. Too many parents don’t teach it anymore. My dad taught it, with a switch. Therefore, I learned it pretty quick. [;)]
I think we do have some of the “BETTER” kids here in the forum though. Let’s hope they can influence some of their friends.
That switch that Dad used represented something that has disappeared, taking respect along with it. Discipline. Used to be that when you got paddled at school, you could probably count on getting it again at home. Now if you get paddled at school, your folks will be at the next school board meeting demanding the teacher’s head.
Some kids grow up needing very little discipline and may even become leaders in their communities. Others who could become leaders need discipline badly, but society has taken it away. Wise indeed was the sage who said “Spare the rod, Spoil the child.” It’s a shame that a parent who has a child misbehaving in a store can’t take action to stem the behavior because they fear they will be arrested for child abuse.
When I was a kid we always thru rocks at passing freight trains, the object was to hit the boxcars and get a nice “Clang” off of it, but the only thing we ever thru at engines, cabooses, or passenger trains, were waves. Throwing at those was “not cool”…
Wow, it makes me mad when I hear of things like that! I just can’t believe the stupidity of some people these days, and to make it worse, it’s people my age doing some of the worst things.
Jhhtrainsplanes: Even though my parents don’t use a switch ([;)]), they brought me up the right way, and I’m proud of them for doing it!
Speaking of stupid kids… On the fourth of July we were heading north through Watseka, IL when a kid jumped in front of us and lit a Roman Candle on our track. He was pretty close to getting hit, and for some stupid stunt. [:(!][V][banghead]
[:(][:(!]Yes, RESPECT went right out the window when the government stepped in and
told parents they could no longer discipline their children as they (parents) saw fit.
If they did, they would be arrested for CHILD ABUSE.
I say, putting a child in “time out”, in their bedroom, with their toys, video games,
etc. is NOT A punishment. Give them a good swift swat on the behind; or, as my
daddy did, make them stand in the corner while standing on their toes!!
Little bastards, when they have thrown rocks at my train, I’ve been tempted to stop the train and persorm a good clock cleaning session. Ok maybe not but I have notified police and most aren’t smart enough to run and just stand around untill the cops get there. Do they think it’s cool to get in trouble like that? And a passenger train window I wouldn’t worry about breaking, it is FRA glazed.
Having had a worktrain engineer take a rock in the side of the head in 1990 at San Juan Capistrano at 11pm (Knocked him cold, a rock the size of a coffee saucer plate), I have no sympathy for the rock throwers. I catch 'em and call the cinderdicks.
(Usually just stopping the truck scatters them…Having something bigger than life and twice as ugly chasing after them scares the poop out of them!)
I would la***hose children to the coupler and give em a ride home. We have pretty good children here, however problems start when they hit the teens and find little to do in town.
The rod is used in the family for punishment. Punishment is not pleasent and as long it is directly associated with the provactive deed does not hurt the child.
I have moved away from large urban areas where it is illegal to administer punishment to a child without being treated as child abuse or some other problem that everyone on up thru the school to the government needed to get involved. Parents here teach thier children right from wrong and smack em when need to.
Now if the children grow up and follows the law and enjoys life great! But stone throwing and other actions designed to hurt other people are not so great. It tells me there is a problem in that child’s world.
Yes as a kid I was expert at stones and wrist rockets and needed to be punished for using them to do bad things. I wonder what it would be like for these track side kids to have a gold bb hit thier bedroom window while THEY are sleeping.
And teachers are either loved or feared in my day. And if you are punished at school knowing you face the same again at home kinds of takes away any “profit” from the deed that brought it on.
Best of luck and try to keep dat head away from the window =)
AMEN, Jhhtrainsplanes/tree68. You hit the nail on the head. When I was coming up I knew the power of the switch or strap. That’s the problem of today, someone needs to catch a few of them and light their butts up!
One of the bad things is that if the kids were in fact 12 and 13, which is what I’m guessing, if they had killed someone with a rock, they merely would have been sent to a boy’s school for 8 years and then released, probably picking up even worse habits along the way.
You really cannot “clean the clock” on someone else’s kids, much less your own. But at 12 or 13, the law pretty much allows that you are young and therefore still innocent.
I remember once when some kids that age were pelting rock in my direction with their parents standing nearby. I told them to stop and the parents gave me very dirty looks like I was abusing their child or something.
I really hadn’t planed on posting on this one.
But HOW can WE get the kids to not do things like this?
When I was in High School,I called the R.R. Police,and apperantly had
several people arrested for doing this. They thought it was FUN.
Even though CW & I don’t have any kids,we still feel this way.
You can’t do anything any more.
My Sis was a teacher,for over 30 years. In latter years,if she needed
to spank a child,she had to go to the Principals Office,get that person,
and another teacher to WITNESS the spanking.
By the time everything happend,the Child didn’t know what “they” had done
and WHY they deserved the spanking!
This reminds me of a story my late father, who was an engineer on the Santa Fe, told me when I was small. He rounded a corner and saw two kids on top of a signal bridge holding a very big rock to drop on his train. He quickly pulled on the horn and held it. The kids dropped the rock on the other main track missing his train. The kids got away before anything else could’ve been done.
My wife would be saying “And where were the parents?”