There were several train derailments in Hennessey shortly after we moved there in 1978.

Then-mayor Eddie Pryor tackled the problem armed with a can of white spray paint. He walked the railroad tracks and marked an X on defective ties.

The problem and his efforts made the front page of The Hennessey Clipper.

Then the railroad sent out an inspector.

Not far behind him on the tracks was the new newspaper editor, a then-30-something me. The inspector refused to talk to me, and picked up his pace. He left me in his dust a couple of blocks later while I tried to get the rocks and dirt out of my green open-toe heels.

I dealt with him by calling his boss in Kansas, who must have just come from drinking his lunch because he said: “What did you expect from a going out of business railroad?”

Another front page story.

By the way, I’d called the Santa Fe Railway collect. I was also the bookkeeper and our budget was tight. The operator also might have thought I said Barbara Walters and not Barbara Walter.

An almost-famous name sometimes helps, but not in the case when a former mayor, Joe Hickey, came back on the town board in the ‘80s.

I’d complained to Eddie that I couldn’t hear the board’s discussion and their votes over the rattles of the old water cooler in the meeting hall.

At the next meeting Eddie offered to let me sit at the far end of the board table. When Joe walked in, he asked me, “Who said you could sit here?”

“I sit here at the pleasure of the mayor.”

“Well it damned sure isn’t my pleasure,” Joe said.

I was later relegated to the audience and still sit there. Now the 70-something me isn’t hesitant to say to the mayor, “We can’t hear you!”

So far the current mayor hasn’t suggested I turn up my hearing aid. That’s because after 41 years of covering boards, it finally has some perks. I have too many old stories on Mayor Bert Gritz that his family would love to hear.