The Great Sugar Derailment

Growing up, no meal was complete without dessert. Dad had a huge sweet tooth so Mom was baking something to satisfy it almost every day - cakes, pies, cinnamon rolls, or, my favorite, cream puffs. Consequently, she used a lot of sugar.

I think, possibly, before I was old enough to really remember, sugar was purchased in cloth sacks, maybe twenty or twenty-five pounds? In my memory, it came in ten pound paper bags. Whenever it was on sale, Mom stocked up.
One of my clear memories about those ten pound sugar bags was cradling one in my arms before my baby brother was born. Mom had said the baby would most likely weigh between eight and ten pounds, so I wanted to practice - to see what holding ten pounds felt like. I digress. Back to the derailment.

(Photo credit to Mike Kennon, Cass County EMS via KJAN Radio)

Reading the news this morning, I saw photos of this semi wrecked on I-80 in Cass County during the snow last night. Seeing all the freight scattered around made me think of a train derailment west of the town of Nodaway which occurred sometime in the 60's.

Whether the call went out for people to help clear the tracks or if my Dad just went out of curiosity, he ended up at the train wreck. One of the rail cars had been loaded with sugar and there was sugar all over. Dad came home long enough to get some buckets and went back to load up with *free* sugar. I know there was other stuff scattered along the rails*, but I only remember the sugar. How sweet it was.

(*Bud says he remembers a neighbor of theirs coming home with a trunk full of magazines.)