Section D · Page 14
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 16, 1999
John Reiminger stands next to a freight train in North Lawrence, the closest, he said, he has been to a freight train in 15 years. In 1984, Reiminger and another KU student spent their spring break hopping freight trains from Topeka to Texas. Photo by Lisa KANSAN
Freedom no more than a train hop away
By Lisa John
Kansan managing editor
Once a hobo, not always a hobo.
When John Reimringer gets into a car, he fastens his seat belt. Next, he locks all the doors. These are not the habits one would expect from a man who, 15 years ago, spent his spring break at the University of Kansas hopping freight trains.
Today, Reimringer is hesitant to share the details of his journey. For one thing, he is working toward a master's of fine arts degree in creative writing, and this is a story he would like to work up into fiction sometime. For another, he doesn't recommend that anyone hop freights.
"It's a good way to get killed," he said.
It's a good way to get killed. He said.
That's what his parents told him when he called home and told them his plans in the spring of 1984.
"The they weren't too happy about it," he said. "But I figured that if I got killed, they'd want to know. If I had told them I was going to Daytona Beach and then they found out I got killed on a freight train in New Mexico, it would have been a shock."
But the burning question is, when there was the alternative to spend spring break in a college mecca on the beach, why would anyone choose to hop freights?
"A friend of mine from the dorm had done it before, and I read about it, and
I was reading Jack Kerouac at the time — so it sounded like a fun thing to do," Reimrineg said.
In fact, the 22-year-old Reimringer had been reading "The Dharma Bums," story by Jack Kerouac that begins with Ray Smith bumming a ride on a freight train.
"Ijust wanted to travel and get out of Kansas," Reimringer said.
But in his own way.
He and a fellow KU student, Jonathan Lee, who had experience hopping freights in Nebraska, packed old blankets and old clothes in army-surplus packs, and on a cold spring night, headed for the Topeka railroad vards.
"We had set our destination as Alamogordo, New Mexico, where my friend had been born," Reimringer said.
"So we spent a long night walking around the yards, asking people who work there where the trains were going."
After finding no luck at the Union Pacific lines, they walked to the Cotton Belt yards, south of the river.
"It it were four in the morning; we were cold and tired." he said. "We went up and knocked on the door of the yard office. We'd checked to make sure there weren't any railroad detectives around. These guys in the yard office recognized us at once as college students out for kicks — we were trying to act like we were hardened bums. But they
looked at us and said, 'Y'all wouldn't happen to be college boys, now would you?"
Reiminger said that he and Lee had told them where they wanted to go.
"They checked a computer printout and said, 'We've got a freight coming in that will be here in about 20 minutes, and it will slow down when it comes over the Kansas River trestle, and you guys can hop on it there — but be careful," he said.
They told Reimringer and Lee that there would be some grain cars near the front of the train that they could get on. The young men checked out the area, looking for obstacles along the track.
"We were also thinking. If I fall when climbing on board, I'm going to push myself away from the train," he said.
nfly away from the crash, he said.
The moment arrived.
"The train came over the trestle moving slowly," Reimringer said. "We ran alongside it and jumped on the back of a grain car — they have ladders and you can grab the ladder with one hand and then with the other hand, and then you jummed."
His first jump was nearly a fall.
Of course they preferred to hop on trains that were standing still.
"When I jumped, I did miss with one foot, and I had the sense of swinging, and then I caught the ladder with my shin, which hurt a lot, and then I climbed on up," he said.
"But we didn't that first night — that's
called catching it on the fly," Reimringer said.
The seven-day odyssey seemed like it was longer.
He talked for nearly an hour, telling of adventures that included run-ins with the law, as well as run-ins with the dubious sorts — the hardened railroad bums
Their journey took them as far as Juarez, Mexico; their experiences took them farther.
— the ones around whom Reimringer said he thought twice about falling asleep in their presence.
They came to know life without guaranteed shelter. They felt the pang of hunger and faced the social isolation that those who live in the grimy world of "On the Road" feel when greeted by cold stares at a small cafe.
He said that a comforting thought throughout the trip had been the knowledge that, no matter how dirty, tired, cold or hungry they were, as college students, they always knew they had a way out.
A stunning revelation to Reimringer was that he didn't really agree with this quote by Kerouac after all: "There's nothing so noble as to put up with a few inconveniences like snakes and dirt for the sake of absolute freedom."
"We were constantly in danger from both sides of the law," he said.
"Having done it, I don't think we were free at all."
—Edited by Kristi Elliott
South Lawrence shopping district provides a place for spending spree
By Mindy Sigle Special to the Kansan
"You can find everything in South Lawrence," Harmon said.
With a gift certificate she received from Best Buy, Erin Harmon, Lawrence freshman, had to go to Kansas City to redeem it. But when she returned with her new microwave, she discovered that Lawrence's Sears had the same microwave—on sale.
South Lawrence, generally everything south of 23rd Street on Iowa Street, has expanded in the past few years. SuperTarget, J C Penney, Sears, Wal-Mart, Kohl's and K-Mart occupy the area that was once nearly desolate.
"I wish that my aunt and uncle would have given me a gift certificate to Target instead."
Michael Young, acting long-range planner for the city, thinks that the growth is good for college students.
Harmon said she was impressed with the selection at SuperTarget.
"The big box stores are where college students would be able to afford clothes," Young said.
But the six, big chain stores are not the only stores that attract people.
"You can practically find any car that you want down there." Young said.
The Lawrence Auto Plaza is located in South Lawrence. So are a number of restaurants, including Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar and Chili's Grill and Bar. Banks and grocery stores like Aldi's and Food 4 Less are also there.
Construction sites show that more retail stores are moving to the area. One site, located between Payless Shoeresource and PetCo Animal Supplies, will become Pier 1 Imports. It is moving from Massachusetts Street in Lawrence's downtown district.
Young said other chains that have proposed to build in South Lawrence include Old Navy, Office Max and Home Depot; and room will be available for many other stores to join the growing area.
Jana Smoot, Chanute sophomore, said that the stores would not exist had it not been for the college students.
"College students are the ones who pay the bills," Smoot said. "We're the ones that go out to eat a lot, and we're the ones that shop a lot. Without the help of us, there would be no commerce here."
"When you live in a college town, everything has to be geared around the college," Shurtz said.
Still, Harmon thinks that she has found a diamond in the rough with SuperTarget.
"My friend Katie and I have a three-times-a-day limit," she said. "Life just wouldn't be the same without Target."
—Edited by Kimberly Erb
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