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- Morris, his dad, wanted Ross to take music lessons and sent him to ateacher. The Goodwins had a pump organ that Ross played at. So when hestarted the first lesson his feet kept pumping like mad. The teachertook exception to this practise and put her legs across Ross's to stophim from moving his legs. That was his one and only lesson. Ross played with many dance bands, especially at St Cloud. At thattime, before the WWI there were many Germans who were arrogant. Healmost got into a fight with the Germans but fortunately was saved bythe owner. He was up for most of the night on many occasions, thengoing back to work on the shreshing machines on the farm. One of thestaples of his life was Velvetta sandwiches. Ross plays the piano, clarinet and tenor and alto saxes. Ross workedin over 90 Railroad stations with the Canadian National, The GreatNorthern, the Southern Pacific and the Burlington Northern. Ross tells of the cook's car in Mabella where it was hard to tell ifthe pies were blueberry because the flies covered them all. They werebrushed off before they could be eaten. Like St Cloud when Ross wentto a dance there was a lot of drinking and fighting. This time theywere Finns. He had one particularly bad time when he escorted a girlhome who had drank too much wine and vomited all the way home all 7miles! He also related about his marathon trips of delivering mail toa camp that was located on a island and to get to it he had to go onthe velocoped (rail) for 4 miles,then paddle a canoe for 2 miles. Ross was on a spare list for a long time during the dirty 30's. Hemade the mistake of going to the Southern Pacific(CP) where he wasguaranteed a steady job. He quit the Great Northern and went to workfor the SP and worked there for 2 days and was laid offtogether with alarge group of people. He returned to Minneapolis where he was hiredfor the Mesabi Range RR Later he moved to California but had to move-no house. Went to Washington to work. He worked at Scenic WA for 5years Scenic has a annual snowfall of 540 inches!. He then moved toSeattle then retired to Great Falls. Ross tells of being in Buckeye AZ in 1931 and was in the station withMilton. Ross was taking the 2nd trick operating where the previousoperator said there was a terrible smell like someone was sending meatthru the railway. It was the victim of Amie Ruth Judd! Ross loves crosswords, and red velvet suits. He got one from Karen whomade a evening jacket and has made good use of it.
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1906 - 
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