He said, "What about a job braking?"

I said, "Fine, anything at all."

He looked over his glasses, at me across his desk. He said, "Why would you want to go to work with the railway?"

"Well sir, I'm tired of living off my father. I'd like to go on my own."

That was the fourth of December (1944). The next morning they sent me up to see Doctor O'Regan on Patrick Street. He gave me a medical, and sent me back. Mr. W. J. Chafe used to be chief inspector. He and Leo Brazil were in the dispatching office, so he sent me out to get a rule book and a switch key.

I went home. Dad wasn't there, and I told Mom, "I got a job with the railway."

The next morning, about 6:30, the phone rang and this was the dispatcher. He said, "If you want to, you can go to Argentia."

It was a mixed train. We had a baggage car, a mail car and a couple of coaches. We'd pick up passengers along the way at Whitbourne, going to Argentia.

Anyway, we went to Argentia and we came back. I made several more runs after that with the same crew. A couple of days later I was called to go to Bishop's Falls on a freight train. At that time they were moving paper from Grand Falls to St. John's, because Botwood was icebound. Anyway, we left St. John's with thirteen cars.

We came to Clarenville. When I got off there, here was Dad coming down the stand. That was about three o'clock in the afternoon. He looked, and I don't think he could believe his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

I said, "I got a job braking." He shook his head and he laughed.

He said, "You were bound to get a job with the railway, to go railroading, weren't you?"