Clickety-clacking on the rails
Clickety-clacking on the rails
Memories of wonderful train rides
Clickety-clacking on the rails
watching the passing scenery
When I was an impressionable four year old going on my first train trip
I thought I was going on the most adventurous ride of my life.
My big sister, Virginia, was twenty and she was my travel companion
and the protector of me on this trip from Toledo,Ohio to Agosta, Ohio.
Knowing what an energetic and precocious child I was she gave me the window seat
where I was told to stop tapping my toes and please sit still and
look out the window at all the wonderful sights.
She also suggested that I count all the cows I saw out that window.
That did not last very long as I had never seen such a big window in my life.
The windows in our rickety old wooden farmhouse were tall and thin
not allowing a little wee one to see a lot of the outdoors.
I was so excited and wanted to see everything I could out that big long train window.
We were traveling into farming country and seeing the animals thrilled me to no end.
The silos, massive tall steel cylinders, cobalt blue in color, especially were beautiful.
I tried so hard to sit still but it was pretty impossible for an energetic four year old.
Often the things we passed just went by too fast for me to take it all in so I would jump up
and down from my seat to the window trying to see everything. I even ran out of fingers
counting those cows!
Soon my big sister laid the law down to me to sit still or she would take the window seat.
That got me quiet for a while then she gave me a big white pillow hoping I’d stop constantly
chattering and take a nap. I must have dozed off a few minutes listening
to the clickety-clack of the wheels on the track. I awakened to get myself quickly into another jam!
My sister had quietly gotten up for some reason unknown to me, perhaps to use the trains
bathroom but she quickly came back when my ear wrenching howls were heard all over the train!
Somehow I had gotten my little left arm caught between the train wall and the arm rest on
the seat. In my four year old impressionable mind I thought I was trapped and would be stuck
there forever.
My sister called the conductor and I immediately curtailed my banshee wailing’s.
He was a very nice man with a gentle caring face and a giant smile. He wore a dark suit
and a cap. The reason I shut up was because he had the darkest skin I had ever seen
in my life. I always got brown like a walnut in the summer from being out in the sun
but to me this man looked as black as the coal in the bin attached to our garage
where I sneaked in to play.
Ma would scold me for getting dirty from playing in that coal bin but I did not care
because to me that was a fun thing to do on a hot summer day as it was a cool place
to hang out. When I saw this big person all black I asked him if his Ma would scold him
from being in the coal bin. He gently got my arm out then laughing to himself
he went down the aisle. My sister thanked him and then she hugged me.
About five minutes later he came back with some potato chips and laughing
told my sister it was for the wee one.
The next time I rode a train I was twelve years old and a big shot riding alone
from Toledo, Ohio to Tucson, Arizona. This time I rode alone. Unheard of for such a young girl.
I had a new blue suitcase packed with some new and old clothes. I also had books, crossword puzzles, comic books and writing paper with pencils. In my purse was ID, fifteen dollars cash and my Brownie Hawk-eye Camera with three rolls of film.
There also was a huge basket with fresh fruits, a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There were some orange and root beer sodas, candy bars and Graham crackers and cheese.
I left on a train alone and was told to not get up until I saw my Aunt Bertha and Aunt Julia. I think the trip was two days I’m really not sure. I loved the ride. But I never got up from that seat.
I was near a window and no one ever sat next to me the whole trip. I can not remember how long it took from Toledo Ohio to Tuscon Arizona. When Aunt Bertha found me on the train I asked her if I could get up and go to the bathroom. She and Aunt Julia were amazed I had not used the bathroom since Toledo.
I had a great time with my cousins in Arizona for eight weeks. When I arrived home I had no home to go to.
Ma and Dad were divorced. One of my dogs, Peaches, had been given away. My other dog, Pee Wee had been run over by a car. I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle five days a week while going to school. Then with my Ma two days a week during school. At least I got to stay with Ma during summer school. I only saw my Dad once.
©Julia A Knaake