If a train is going 60 mph, going a distance of 60 miles, and starting at 2 p.m., where will it meet another train going 15 miles an hour starting at 2 p.m.? For an answer – ask Professor Black Blanchard.
I was in Richard Loeb’s Dry Good Store one day in the ’50s. Mutt LeBlanc was a clerk in the store. One day a young boy, about 15 years of age, told Mutt that he wanted to buy a pair of pants. Mutt gave him a pair that was three sizes too large at the waist. The boy told Mutt that the pant’s were too loose at the waist. Mutt said: “Son, don’t worry – at your age, in another year or so, you will grow into them.” Well, the boy seemed satisfied and left. Then, an old man, about 75 years of age, walked in and wanted to buy a pair of pants. Mutt looked all over the store and finally found a pair that was two sizes too short. The old man put them on and looked into the mirror and saw where they were too short. He said: “Mutt, these pants are too short.” Mutt looked at the man and said: “Mister, at your age, by next year you will shrink in to them.” The old man was satisfied, so he bought them.
Remember when Berwick didn’t have a sewer system? Everybody had outhouses in their back yards. About every five years or so, the outhouses had to be moved over because it couldn’t hold the waste matter any longer.
Alphonse Mahfouz told me one day that his was full and was ready to be moved over about 8 feet. He had three brothers, Doo-Doo, Prince, and Joe; and a brother-in-law, George Grow, to help move the outhouse over. While they were shoving the outhouse over, Doo-Doo- stepped back too far and went into the old hole. Doo-Doo- stepped into the Boo-dooes.
It was like quicksand. He yelled for help, hollering that he was sinking. Quick-thinking George Grow saw a rake close by and he handed one end of it to Doo-Doo to grab. They finally pulled him out. He was a mess. He stood up there dripping – he looked so pitiful. Boy, but did he smell!
Let’s say you have an oversize truck with large wheels that are 10 feet in circumference. If both were leaving together going 60 mph, racing for 5 miles, which one would get there first? Ask Ferris Romaire, the machinist. He knows the answer.
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