Volume 9 , Issue 13

My First Train Ride

"Hi Linda, you train story brought back fond memories of my childhodd growing up in Oklahoma. I would like to share with you my first experience on a train." -- Ken Updike, Wilson, OK

1945 Seminole, Okla.... "I had never ridden on a train. Daddy wrote Grandpa or Uncle Emory down in Kingsland , Ark. We were coming to see them on the "TRAIN" . I don't remember much of the particulars other than Mother and Betty, my sister, taking us down to the CRI & P. Depot in Seminole. It was at the far South end of Main St.

We boarded the train and I was amazed that the inside of the cars looked exactly like they did in the movies. The two seats faced each other. I remember daddy telling me he didn't like riding backwards because it made him feel sick. It didn't bother me because I didn't sit down that long. I was walking up and down the aisles and going from one car to the other. Yep it was just like you see in the movies. I remember the toilets on board. You sat down on the commode and when you were thru and flushed, it opened and dumped between the tracks. You could see the railroad ties when the toilet opened up. I wondered what they done when someone used it while they were stopped at a station.

We were to make a train change somewhere in Eastern Okla. or just into Arkansas. I only know when we arrived at the place to catch the next train it had already come and gone.

Daddy found out that we could catch a train over in the next little town to get us on into Kingsland. He found us a Hotel/rooming house and we spent the nite. I remember him putting his wallet under his pillow. I thought how great, that he would think of such a thing to protect his money!

The next morning when we awoke and we were getting dressed to go down stairs, I noticed Daddy had a Twenty dollar bill folded up and put in his shoe. This man amazed me that he was a world traveler and had the intelligence to watch out for us in case of robbery, skullduggery, etc.

Well in order for us to catch the train in the next little town, we "Hitchiked". It was somewhere around 11 miles and we started walking. I remember watching and listening to all the birds along the road. It was just an old county road. Not a paved hiway. I kept hearing a cat meow and asked Dad if there was one around. He said that it was a Cat Bird and pointed it out to me. We stopped and listened to him. It certainly sounded like a cat meowing.

After a few miles of walking, an old man came by in an old beat up truck and gave us a ride into the next town. I think Daddy offered to pay him and he wouldn't take anything. We me made to town in time to catch the train on to Kingsland. I dont know why but I cant remember the ride back. We might have had my Uncle Emory take us home. I have never ridden on another train. I guess this is why it is so special to me. I do remember riding the Trolleys in New Orleans when we took my sister down there to see a specialist. But that's a whole new story."
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