Danny the Turtle Hunter

Danny the Turtle Hunter

By Daniel J Lavato

I was about six or seven years old at the time. My folks and I lived in a small town on the Iron Range in northern Minnesota. Of course at the time I didn't even know where Minnesota was. I knew my neighborhood was called "Ridgewood". Our house was a gray wooden one with blue trim on a road at the edge of the neighborhood. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander lived next door. They had a daughter, Judy, about my age. We played together sometimes, but my best friend lived a few houses down the other way. Danny Killfoil was his name. His house was on the corner. Our moms would let us go to each others house to play, as long as they knew where we were. We had great fun, playing cowboys and Indians and exploring and such.

There was a railroad track that marked the edge of our back yards. We were told to stay away from the railroad track, especially when the trains came by. Trains were huge, iron monsters that would eat little children! My dad would know that because he worked on the railroad.

The older kids would walk along the track all the time though. The tracks were a more direct route through the neighborhood and into town. Most of them could walk on the rail for as long as I could see them. I tried to do that, but kept falling off. Besides, I was not suppose to be on the tracks in the first place. Danny Killfoil and I would always be sure to stand way back when the trains came. Pretty scary. They didn't go very fast, but they made a lot of noise, and were miles long. Metal, open top cars full of iron ore on the way to the crusher, with two engines pulling, and sometime an engine or two pushing. Wow! Took a long time to go by too.

On the other side of the track was a swamp. Kind of a peat bog, with short trees and scrub brush. Plenty of muck and standing water. That swamp was number one on our list of places not to go. Never go into the swamp!

My dad worked at a train yard called "Rainy Junction" on the other side of the swamp. But to get there mom had to drive down the road past Danny Killfoil's house, then turn and go past a big empty field. The road turned and finally came to an stop on the other side of the big empty field. If you turned left it would take you into town, but if you turned right the road would take you past the radio station, with it's big, tall, antenna with a blinking light on top, and then through some woods, and then to Rainy Junction. The train yard had several buildings, many parked cars, people going here and there, and huge, smoking, noisy train engines being moved from place to place. Tracks ran everywhere. It was quite a sight. My dad worked on "the track gang". They were the ones that kept the tracks in shape so that those huge trains could use them. That was a very important job.

The front door of our house was really on the side. There was a set of steps than ran up the side of the house to a small porch. The front door had a heavy wooden screen with a spring to keep it shut in the summer. That was replaced by a storm door for the long, cold, and snowy winters. The screen door was not on very long. That was fine with mom, as she didn't like the noise it made when it slammed shut.

Going through the front door took you into an entry way where you would hang your coat and take off your boots and such. There were stairs that went to the basement in there too. The kitchen was the first room you came to. It always smelled good in there, as mom cooked a lot. Our living room was off the kitchen, with the bedrooms beyond it. We had a couch and a couple stuffed chairs in our living room, but best of all was a big wooden radio. I loved to sit in front of it and listen to "The Lone Ranger", and "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon". There were many good radio shows, and we got great reception because we could see the radio station antenna from our house. Perfect!

One day Danny Killfoil's mom sent him to play with me, and my mom sent me to play with Danny Killfoil. I don't think either one of them wanted to hear the screen door slam anymore. We kind of met in the middle, then went looking for something to do.

We ended up chasing bugs with sticks near the tracks. Before you knew it we were throwing rocks across the tracks, trying to hit things on the other side. That's when I spotted a turtle. Kind of big one, crawling along the wet crass on the other side of the tracks.

"Let's go get the turtle!", I said to Danny Killfoil.

"No, No!", he exclaimed. "We are NOT ALLOWED to go on the other side of the tracks!"

It won't hurt, I told him, the big kids do it all the time. No, No, he kept saying, we were not suppose to go there.

We kept the turtle in sight for awhile as it moved along the edge of the swamp, then it turned and went away from the tracks and into the wet grass and water. I looked both ways for trains, then cautiously stepped onto the tracks. Danny Killfoil kept telling me not to go, but I looked both ways again then crossed the tracks and went down the other side into the forbidden swamp.

I looked back to see Danny Killfoil jumping up and down on the "good" side of the tracks trying to keep me in sight, and imploring me not to go any further. Be that as it may, I had my sights in the turtle and wanted to see where he was going. At first I could stay pretty much along the tracks, but then the turtle started going into the swamp and I had to leave the right of way to find him again.

There was a lot of dry ground at the edge of the swamp so I could move into the wooded area without much problem. The deeper I went into the woods the more muck and standing water there was, usually surrounded by tall grass making it hard to see. I had to try and work my way around these areas so as not to get all wet an muddy. It wasn't long before I lost track of the turtle. But, I figured I could hunt him down, or find others. I figured the swap was probably full of them. Plenty of bugs for them to eat, that's for sure. Smelled bad too. Like rotting eggs or something. Yuck!

I made my way along an aimless, zig zag path for quite awhile, loosing track of time exploring the wonders around me. Spooky looking dead trees with moss hanging on them. Strange sounds coming from all directions. There were places where the trees were big and had leaves too. And grass as tall as I was. But not many turtles. Mostly just bugs.

Hard ground was getting harder to find, and I was having a hard time getting to where I wanted to go. I kept having to backtrack or circle around because of the wet, smelly muck that was everywhere.

And it was getting later all the time. I was going to be in big trouble if I didn't get out of here soon. Only I could find my way back! I could get there from where I was. And it was starting to get dark! I was getting pretty scared.

I was looking around trying to recognize someplace where I had been when I spotted the big radio station antenna with the blinking light on top. Yes! At least I knew where I was now, I just couldn't get back to the tracks. I needed to try and get to the antenna. If I could get to the radio station I could follow the road back home. I knew my way from there because I had gone with mom to bring dad to work many times and we drove right past the radio station.

There was very little hard ground by now. I had to try and jump from clump to clump, and hang onto to trees to keep from falling into the muck. Sometime I would slip and my foot would get stuck and it was really hard to pull it out. It was getting darker all the time, and the bugs were biting me and flying into my ears. I had to hold my mouth shut to keep them from flying in there! It smelled SO BAD. But I kept my eye on the blinking light and tried to go as straight as I could toward it.

Finally! I came out the other side of the swamp without much warning. It just ended near the small, cement block building where the antenna was. Thick metal cables anchored in concrete helped hold the towering antenna upright. I was never so glad to see that thing. I was wet, tired, muddy, smelly, scarred, but happy at the same time.

It was REALLY late now. I had no time to waste. I started to run home along the edge of the road. It took awhile to get to the intersection that led to my neighborhood. I stopped to catch my breath, and thought for one brief moment about cutting across the big empty field. No way! I didn't want to take any more chances. I started running along the edge of the road again.

I ran right past Danny Killfoil's house, barely noticing the lights in the windows. I ran up my steps and through the front door, cringing as the screen door slammed. But there were no lights on in my house. No one was home. I didn't understand. Where was my mom and dad?

I went down to the basement and took of my muddy, smelly clothes and put them in the washroom. I wiped myself off as best I could and put on some dry things, then sat in the front room and looked out the window. No sign of the folks. I didn't know what to do. I turned on the big wooden radio.

After awhile I heard voices from the kitchen. My folks were home! Mom was crying! Oh no! What happened?

Then they spotted me.

"Where have you been!", dad barked. Mom scooped me up and hugged me firmly while struggled to stop sobbing.

"I went turtle hunting.", I told them.

Needless to say that was the end of my turtle hunting career. I never entered that swamp again!