Tom Melon, Stable Hand

Independence Day Celebration Day Witness

Crooked Mile Valley    Crooked Mile Portmanteau    Demographics Desk with Louise McCallister      Tom Melon, Stable Hand

Louise McCallister by ROD w/Midjourney

Lightkeeper's Lending Library

Dear Reader:
My research and interview with Tom Melon before the Independence Day Celebration Fiasco. He appeared content with his decision to relocate here in Crooked Mile, and he was looking forward to finding a home in the Goose Valley Landing Neighborhood with his bride. Since the fire and stampede, he's been unavailable for a follow up interview, but he did send me a recollection of his experience.

— Louse McCallister, Demographics Librarian

Tom Melon’s father, who suffers from lung infections, urged Tom to leave the Bridleborne mining companies for the sake of his health. Tom knows horses and hard work, so he asked Lenny if he could use a good stable hand? Lenny agreed to pay him less than he usually did, but Tom was happy to please his father and his finance’. It means postponing their wedding, but she agrees that in the long run her dream of going to college at Briarbank Night School and his work at the Stables means they are sharing their goals to “not follow in their parents’ footsteps.”
Tom is looking for a house in Crooked Mile they can afford to buy. Tom spent two years in the military, enough to qualify for a low interest loan. He is filling out the paperwork to for a veteran’s project home close to the college and the stable.

Crooked Mile, July 19, 1907

Stampede July 19 by ROD w/Midjourney

Tom Melon

Lenny Garamund Stable Manager

Tom Melon and Louise McCallister by ROD w/Midjourney

Crooked Mile Independence Day

July 19, 1907

Melon's Reaction

The morning of the Independence day auction, Tom is working overtime with grooming. He does not enjoy working up stage near the auctioneer with the hundreds of onlookers watching his every motion with the horse on the block. From where he stands, he hears nothing but cheering and laughing. His painting and road work keep him too busy to check on their whereabouts and health every day. Tom notices the horses are acting oddly since he last saw them in the pasture the week before the auction.
Some of the horses are lethargic. Others are biting one another. He’s never seen this many horses being shoved into together. When he runs out of water from the pump, Tom walks forward to see thousands, not the hundreds of visitors he expected to attend the event, struggling to find a place to stand near the parade and within the auction gates. A blue grass band plays between the bids.
Then he hears the faint sound of firecrackers. By the time he reaches the barn, the delirious animals bust through the gates and stampede forward. So do the onlookers.

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