Railroaders' Nostalgia > Monopoly at Concordia

For a little over 5 months in the summer/fall of 1974 I was in the employ of Santa Fe’s M.O.W. department. It was my first RR employment of any kind. Most of that summer my ‘extra gang’ was stationed in various spots along the Eastern Division main line between Argentine & Emporia. But in the fall of ’74, with all the wisdom a 19 year old could muster I got a wild hair and transferred over to the Middle Division. My thinking was that I could be closer to home in Manhattan, and could more easily chase my high school sweetheart around. So it was that I gave up a busy & vibrant Santa Fe main line operation for a remote & rustic branch line setting. I was hoping to land on an extra gang near Abilene, a mere 45 minutes from Manhattan. But that was where all the high seniority wanted to work. So it was “Concordia, KS here I come”! It didn’t take long to discover the error in my thinking. Concordia was actually 15 minutes farther away from Manhattan than Emporia, where my Eastern Division gang was stationed when I transferred. I worked about a month before the US Postal Service came calling and I gave up my budding RR career. Through youthful ignorance & folly I had more or less steered it into “the sticks” in north central Kansas.

During that long month in Concordia I worked on an extra gang whose foreman was a loud-mouthed character with a truculent and sharply abrasive personality. He absolutely loved to lord it over anyone “beneath” his self-deemed glorious station in life. My regret for not staying with my earlier Eastern Division situation was now doubled. When I was offered employment with the US Postal Service in Manhattan in late October I took it and never looked back at my short career as a railroader.

But shortly before I quit I remember with relish one evening where I kinda-sorta got even with that bellicose foreman. At least I quietly considered it a personal moral victory. In a typical work week most of the gang spent Wednesday & Thursday evenings hopping around the local watering holes, chasing whatever female types they could. Married or no it didn’t matter. And on Fridays the entire gang ran for a weekend at home once the day’s work was done. Of course our hypocritical foreman usually skipped out an hour (or more) early to go home, leaving the rest of us to honor our employment commitment. So I’m thinking this incident must have taken place on a Monday or Tuesday evening. And it involves the game of “Monopoly”, my all-time favorite as a kid growing up…

Our gang’s bunk car was parked right behind the Concordia depot (which still stands today). I went into the depot early on the evening in question to attend to some wasteful matters. This was because the depot facility was ever so much more hospitable to certain necessary human functions than the bunk car was. The foreman and another gang member were sitting at a table playing cards, but with very little energy. I pulled up a chair and watched. Soon we were all engaged in conversation about various games we had each played in family settings. When I mentioned Monopoly our foreman suddenly came to life. It was also his favorite game as a kid. But the other guy had never played that great American board game which came to prominence during the Great Depression years. I told those 2 to give me 15 minutes, and ran out the door. I went out to the local department store (K-Mart??) which in those days was on the east side of town just short of the Santa Fe crossing. I remember as I drove into the parking lot seeing the Superior-bound local crossing E 6th St behind a perfect A-B-B-A quartet of F units. This was (sigh……) fully 2 years before I got smart enough to start carrying a camera. I went in and bought a brand-new Monopoly game-set. The one I had at home was about worn out, and it was down to a mere 7 (count ‘em, s-e-v-e-n) orange $500 bills left. Back at the depot I walked in with my brand new Monopoly set, and we started to play. As the game progressed I managed a bit of luck, being the first to land on & acquire all 3 Red properties: Illinois, Indiana & Kentucky Aves. I also managed to land on & buy 3 of the 4 RRs plus at least one of every other color street on the board. But I wanted more! I had my eye on B&O, which was owned by our 3rd player. In a shrewd offer, and while retaining ownership of St James Place I offered him New York Ave + $500 for his B&O. Our foreman yelped at him not to do the trade, but with his inexperience it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. When he agreed to my deal I knew I had the game won. And I didn’t even put houses or hotels on the Red properties. At $200 per ticket on my beloved RRs, and with basic lot rent elsewhere I would win in a long, drawn-out fashion. And it was worth every torturous & deliciously long minute to watch our foreman s-l-o-w-l-y go bankrupt. I think he figured out what I was up to. I was surprised that held no grudge during the work days that followed. Even if he had, I would end up quitting and going to work for the Manhattan Post Office the following week.

Last October I chased a grain empty from Abilene up to Concordia, where I ran out of daylight. As I waited for one last shot at the grain empty I sat parked in the Roberts Dairy truck lot right across from the old Santa Fe depot. My mind drifted pleasantly back to 1974, and I played to those memories. Once more I got revenge on that pugnacious foreman! Sorta…

1. BNSF 8073 is westbound with a grain empty crossing Broadway St in Concordia, KS.
Photo date: October 9, 2017.

2. Typical Monopoly game board.

Give me Reading, Pennsylvania, B&O and the Short Line and I’ll rule the world…
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/18 11:52 by santafe199.

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Oh, Lance --That is such a wonderful and really cool story! I really enjoy Monopoly, too. And thanks so much for the photo of the Monopoly board. Your photo is great, also. What did you do for the Post Office?

Ahhhhh....youth..... We all make silly decisions when we are very young -- and we sometimes can't avoid doing that even when we are old. That's just life.

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote: > ... What did you do for the Post Office?

I started out as a clerk, but early in '75 I transferred over to being an outdoor mailman, complete with a uniform. I've got my share of Mailman vs Dog stories. Never got bit, but came close a couple of times...

Lance/199 

OT, but I just can't resist!

An old lady and her dog are sitting on the porch when the mailman comes by. The dog gets one look at the mailman and jumps off the porch, runs out and really bites the mailman. The mailman is lying on the ground being tended to by the paramedics, when the postal inspectors arrive. The old lady is all upset, and they tell her that she will have to do something about her dog.

About a month later, the mailman has recovered from his injuries and is back walking down the street. Here is the old lady and her dog on the porch, and same thing happens, the dog runs out and chews up the mailman.

He is lying there being bandaged up by the paramedics again when the postal inspectors arrive again and tell the old lady that "we told you to do something about that dog!" The old lady said "I did, I took him to the vets and had him neutered!" The mailman sits up and says to the old lady: "you stupid woman, you should have taken him to the dentist and had his teeth pulled, I could tell he didn't want sex when he left the porch!"
G

Concordia is one of those surprising little towns that had a lot of railroad presence and still has depots for the Santa Fe and the UP. I don't know if any others survived but if you are nearby it is worth a visit.

ExSPCondr Wrote: > ............ could tell he didn't want sex when he left the porch!"

In my 4 years with the USPS I heard a lot of funny Mailman vs Dog anecdotes. But that's a new one! My personal funniest situation wasn't exactly funny at the time. I once had a dog gum me to death... One very hot summer day I was plodding along with a heavy volume of mail. I was wearing uniform shorts and the required long thin black socks, with about 8 inches of my knee areas totally exposed. As was accepted when running late I was walking house to house, cutting across the lawns. With magazines & other flats in the crook of my arm and a wad of letters in my hand I would thumb through each, gathering mail for the next house as I walked. I was approaching the next house with its mail ready and a surprise dog came charging at me from a round this big bush. He had me nailed, dead-to-rights!!! Even before I could turn and face him he went for my exposed right knee. I instinctually braced for what was sure to be a painful & probably bloody event. But then a strange thing happened. That dog's mouth just slid right off my knee. He didn't have a single tooth in his head! I looked at him and he was now wagging his tail, looking like he wanted to play. With my recent explosion of adrenalin still pulsing I just yelled: "Git outta here you little some-bitch, you just took 10 years off my life"! I later learned from that route's regular carrier that the dog was elderly and this was indeed his way of playing. True story...

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/18 09:15 by santafe199.

Cumbres Wrote: > ... still has depots for the Santa Fe and the UP ...

The old Mop depot is also still in its original spot...

Lance

I was thinking there was a third one there but didn't remember when I first wrote my message. I believe it was actually for sale the last time I was up there. If it was closer to home I would have loved to buy it to live in it.

Great post! All stories in the thread make it even better.

Carol and I had some friends we played monopoly with often when we first married. The two wives always complained about the Jim and I changing rules.

A huge pit bull we know is a therapy dog. When people worry about his bite, his person gets him to grin...toothlessly. He was horribly abused as a puppy and has no teeth. Needless to say, nobody worries about him after that! (I don't think he'd figure out how to bite if he did have teeth, but I sure wouldn't bet on any big dog not having a bad day.)

Rebecca Morgan
Jacobsburg, OH

Even a toothless Pit Bull can hurt ya. They have some powerful jaws.

Concordia, KS June 2012 - UP, Santa Fe and Mop depots.

Bradley Linda
Waco, TX

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