Eddie Howard .. Engineer, Friend, and a Sad story Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track

Pueblo..Downtown Motel 1978

I laugh at some of these, and am sad at the same time. I come into Pueblo, CO about 800 pm. Eddie is yarding a freight, possibly the 594, a drag freight into Denver. The cut and fill will be made during the switching of the train. He rides with us to the Motel. We get the crew caller to drive us to the lodging facility, we pitch in and give him 20 bucks, what for a 15 -20 minute outta pocket run.

Eddie says, “Hey..I am here for 6 to 8 hours, I am short on cash, can I get 20 bucks from ya”. “Yeah no problem, here pay me back when ya can” We get called for our respective calls east and north. I don’t know when I’ll see Eddie again, who knows. I forget about the “loan”.

It’s 300 am, I am beat, was a trial getting to Pueblo, but that’s the way it goes at times. I grab a room, and lights out, I am in a coma, till 100pm the next afternoon. I wake up, and call the crew caller. Looks like around 800 or 900 pm, maybe the 151 back or an empty. As I leave to go eat, there is an envelope, under the door, with 60.00 dollars in it. Okay, Hello, WTF?

The note reads: Hey thanks for the loan, I got called for 700 am and saw you were in town, I didn’t want to wake you. Thanks again, have a good trip back Eddie.
Did I not loan Eddie 20 bucks? Okay, I am not a loan shark, 20 bucks out 20 bucks back. I see Eddie 2 trips later. “Hey!!, here’s your money back, like 40.00 over the amount”. “Nah, keep it” “Nah 20 for 20 or don’t ask me again”. A sad face and he takes the 40 bucks. “Eddie, we all get short, don’t over pay…20 for 20…40 for 40, not a penny more or a penny less”.

Guilt maybe, I don’t know, was Eddie. He could be over generous to a terrible fault.