Mannigan's Train
I was working in Glendive Montana back when you could get cherries for nineteen cents a pound, working as a security guard. The railroad runs through Glendive, right along main street. Well, along comes a train chocker block full of Fathead Cherries on their way to…well, where ever they were going. That train chugged through town then tipped over just the other side of Glendive and there was (sic) Flathead Cherries everywhere and I was hired on to guard those boxes until they could figure out what to do with them.
On my first shift I was a running fool: A box of cherries would grow legs and I’d take off runnin’ across the field after it. Then another box would grow legs and take off in another direction and I’d be huffin and puffin after that one. I’ll tell you - that was some hot, dusty work. Pretty soon another box grew legs and I’d try chasing that one, and pretty soon I was runnin in circles around those cherries, but dang, I never did catch a single box!.
After about two or three days of chasing cherries, I got home from my shift. I was beat - tired and worn out from all the running I did. I got out of the pickup and saw a box on my porch. I reached up and straightened my hat and wiped my brow cause it had been a long, hot shift. I walked over to that box and right there on my own front porch was a whole lug of Flathead Cherries. All I could do was shake my head and carry them into the house.
Story contributed by a man named Mulligan with Iowa license plates in July 2010 at Tobacco Row in Billings, MT.