Trup and the Nerve Gas Train

When I was a kid, one of the highlights of our summer vacation was spending a couple of weeks at my grandparents' house.

They lived in Elberton. My cousins lived there, everyone knew everyone, and everyone there still remembered my dad even though he had long since moved away. Seems like everytime Carolyn would introduce Ronnie and me as her nephew and niece from Atlanta, the response was usually "These must by Kenneth's young-uns!" (No one there had children, kids, babies, etc....they all had young-uns.)

All of us cousins were just about the same age. Mr brother Ronnie is 16 months older than me, my cousin Freddie is 6 months older than Ronnie, Martha Helen is about 8 months older than me, and Ann is one year younger than me.)

Carolyn and Benny (my aunt and uncle) lived just down the road from my grandparents. Since six kids under one roof was a little too much for anyone, what usually happened was us girls would spend one day and night at my grandparents while Ronnie and Freddie stayed with Carolyn and Benny. Then we'd swap.

It was one thing to spend the day at my grandparents, but spending the night was another story entirely. For one thing, my grandparents went to bed early in the evening and they got up early in the morning. If you were staying with them, you were expected to do the same. Carolyn on the other hand, would let us stay up as late as we wanted and sleep as late as we wanted.

The other thing was the television. Again, Carolyn let us watch whatever we wanted. At my grandparents' house, if Lawrence Welk or Marlin Perkin's Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom was on, you might as well go outside and watch the grass grow because that tv channel was not getting changed.

My cousins had these two old maid aunts that lived in a huge, old house in the city. Occasionally, they would tell Carolyn to bring some of us by to spend the night with them. This was ok with us for several reasons. They would also let us stay up late and sleep late, their house was neat because it was so old and still had many of the original features, and they lived within walking distance of the town square.

Their names were Helen and Flora. We all called them Aunt Helen and Aunt Flora even though technically Ronnie and I weren't related to them at all. However, Helen had a nickname that she did not know about.

My cousin Ann had this penchant for pinning a nickname on people and the names she chose were both funny and spot on. She began calling Aunt Helen "Trup" (behind her back, of course.) The reason was because Aunt Helen could belch REALLY loud and she did not try to hide it.

When she did, it usually came out as "TTTRRRRRUUUUUUPPPPPP!!!!" Because it was so loud, so unladylike, and she was so unapologetic when she did it, all of us kids saw it as entertainment and would beg her to do it again and again and again. Today's kids with their high falutin' video games and computers have no idea what how much fun it is to have an aunt who can belch out some big ones on request.

Anyway, when I was about 10 years old, we were spending the summer at my grandparents and this particular time we were spending the night with Aunt Helen and Aunt Flora. I don't remember too much about that summer except that the big thing in the news at that time was that a nerve gas train coming through Elberton.

It seemed like anytime you turned on the news, everyone was talking about the nerve gas train. This particular train was carrying a shipment of nerve gas that was eventually going to be dumped in the ocean. Of course, absolutely no one wanted this thing coming through their town, but it had to go somewhere to get where it was going. So after much fuss and politics, a route was settled on and the train set off for the ocean. Part of its route was through Elberton.....and Trup and Aunt Flora lived within walking distance of the railroad tracks.

That evening we were sitting in the living room waiting for the news to end so we could watch "Gunsmoke". The big story, of course, was where the nerve gas train was and when it was expected to roll through Elberton. I distinctly remember that the reporter said that it would arrive in Elberton shortly after midnight and Trup saying that we would all be asleep by then.

Then Ann asked the question that we had all been wondering about. What exactly was the big deal about this nerve gas train? Being 9 and 10, we had absolutely no idea what nerve gas was, what the deal was with this train, and why everyone was so upset about it.

Trup leaned back in her recliner and said "Well.....it's like TTTTRRRRUUUUUPPPP this. TTTTRRRRUUUUPPPPP......nerve gas is poison and you can't see it. TTTRRRRUUUUUPPPPP and if just one drop of it leaks out of that train, it will TTTRRRRUUUUUPPPP kill every single person in TTTTRRRRUUUUUPPPPPPP Elberton TTRRRUUUUPPPPP."

At this point, there was nothing we could do. It was 7:45 and we knew our grandparents were getting ready for bed. Ronnie and Freddie were over at Carolyn and Benny's and there was no place for us to sleep over there, anyway. My parents were back in Mableton which was over two hours away. We were pretty much stuck.

So, after Gunsmoke was over, the three of us went upstairs. Suddenly, playing our usual game of calling the drug store on the square and asking if they had Prince Albert in a can didn't seem like fun anymore. We had bigger things to worry about, midnight was approaching, and so was the nerve gas train. This could very well be our last night alive.

Suddenly, Martha Helen had an idea. We should just hold our breath until the nerve gas train went by...that way, if we were going to die, at least it wouldn't be immediately. (I just said she had an idea....I didn't say that it was a good one.)

The problem was that we were getting sleepy and we needed to stay awake for the nerve gas train. Since Ann wasn't sleepy, we decided she would keep lookout. (We got that idea from something we had seen on Gunsmoke earlier.) If she got sleepy, she would wake me up and I would take over. Then when I got sleepy, I'd wake up Martha Helen and we'd just keep doing that until the nerve gas train went through. So Martha Helen and I went on to sleep.

I woke up around 2:30 in the morning. I knew it was 2:30 because the bank was right down the street and I could see the time and temperature sign from the upstairs bedroom window. The nerve gas train must have already come through Elberton and Ann didn't wake me up. I didn't know if she had fallen asleep or had fallen victim to the nerve gas.

So, I did what I had to do. I said "Ann....are you dead?"

I heard her stir around. She said "No....what time is it, anyway?"

"It's 2:30....I guess the nerve gas train has already come by and we missed it. I wonder if everyone else is ok."

Ann said, "I don't know...let's find out. Hey, Martha Helen. Are you dead?"

Martha Helen said, "No....are y'all?" (Y'all leave her alone...she can't help it.)

The three of us were present and accounted for, but we had no idea as to if the rest of Elberton survived the nerve gas train. Then something happened that made us realize that more than likely, everything was probably ok.

From the next room, we heard a blessed sound of reassurance.

"TTRRRRUUUUUUUPPPPP!!!"

** For more information about The Nerve Gas Train, click here.