Luning, Nevada replayed its noisy spool of memories, rewound to when parades of dusty trucks rolled in.
They were loaded down with magnesium from nearby mines. Ton after ton of the white silver mineral hauled in, loaded onto westbound trains and sent off for processing to eventually wind up in insulators, fertilizers and plastics.
That’s all he could remember about the town except for the story his grandfather told about stopping there for a beer and running into Nat King Cole.
Out on U.S. Route 95, between Hawthorne and Mina, memories of Luning, Nevada can unfold like a heavily starched shirt.
Memories of back when silver dust trucks loaded down with magnesium papered the town with easy money.
When the noisy groan never seemed to let up.
He would never forget how it sounded, magnesium poured into trains, the ragged clank and crash when it fell into open top hoppers.
