June 10, 2015

by Jerry Ginther
NP Columnist

The aroma of brewing coffee hung in the morning air as many of us viewed the incredible sight before us. It was a cold winter morning in January 1969, although slightly above freezing, as we surveyed the wreckage of a head on collision between two trains. The crash had occurred in the early morning hours that same day at Indian Oaks just a short distance north of Kankakee, Ill. at a junction point where three tracks converged into two. The aroma was the result of a box car carrying coffee being demolished and its contents strewn over the melting snow and standing water puddles.
This train wreck happened about 46 years ago, and I still remember how the visual and olfactory inputs at the scene presented a striking contrast. The smell of morning coffee and the devastation before us just didn’t go together. At that point in time all of the deceased had yet to be recovered.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.