Walking A Tightrope Over The Ohio River(pg. 4)

     We drifted down many sloping valleys and hollers and hugged the Ohio River as we finally made it to Milton. Milton was a quiet town and very small, but it was the last town before crossing the Ohio River. Now, Madison, Indiana on the other side of the river was a very different story, the town had a little Hollywood and historical past, the downtown of Madison is known as the Madison Historic Landmark District; Madison was founded in 1809 along the Ohio River and the home to Indiana's first railroad and had an active steamboat port. Now, in 1958, a film called Some Came Running was shot in Madison by the great director Vincente Minnelli and starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacLaine and had five Academy Award nominations. 
    We first walked into that small town and ate at the Dairy Queen, and it was the only restaurant in this one-horse town. I had $48 bucks to last until my first payday so I ate light. Stingray and my new friends laughed at me because I drank four miniature cartons of milk with my sausage and gravy, they all drank cokes but I told them, "I'm a growing boy!" They laughed and I broke some more ice and lifted any stagnant air that remained. 
     I had my eye on that cute little waitress and she had her eyes on me as well, but I waited another time before I made any move. We all loaded up and traveled across the Milton-Madison bridge, and Stingray traveled over it very slowly in his van, and I gawked over its wonder, the bridge was in the total length of 3,184.2 feet, over 3/4 of a mile long and in the dead center of the bridge it was over 240 feet from the boughs of its edge to the cold Ohio River, no place for cowards to work on that's for sure. 
     We arrived at this very nice hotel, all the rooms were paid in full by our boss, and by golly that helped too! I out of politeness let them each pick their beds, and they were all nice, but you know people and their idiosyncratic moods, one little tick could set off the alarm. We all unpacked our light bags, and I just threw mine under the bed, suitcase and all. 
     "Who wants to go get a drink?" Stingray said with that country twanged voice. 
     "You do know that this city is dry, right?" I said like an unabashed smart aleck. 
     "Junior, Junior, Junior, I know that, but the next town over isn't!" Stingray said with the quickest comeback of his career. 

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