Hello, Steve.
I am from Albia, so I will address your message.
> I'm working on an article about a 24-hour trip I
> made in 1966, when I was 15
Please give some thought to posting your article when
you are finished with it. I would especially like to
read your account of the mixed train between Des
Moines and Albia. They used to run a doodlebug on
this route when I was a kid. I'd like to know where
you caught the train in Des Moines.
> The crew on board No. 28, the "Capital City
> Limited," told me that some of the track I was
> riding on would soon be underwater. Were they
> right?
Yes. They were building the Red Rock Dam on the Des
Moines River at that time, and that stretch of track
would be on the lake bottom.
> I remember the Albia station being red brick, but
> another source said it was wooden.
NO! They were wrong; the station WAS red brick, as
was the platform.
> The Albia station made an impression on me because
it
> appeared to be segregated--not by race, but by
> sex--with the men's waiting room resembling the
> "colored" waiting rooms of the South.
It did have 2 waiting rooms, but until today's mail
run, I never had an idea of why.
> I suspect this segregation wasn't enforced, but I
> wondered whether a foreign anthropologist visiting
> the depot might have concluded that America was a
> matriarchal society.
The "segregation" was never enforced, at least in my
lifetime. Frankly, I think that a foreign
anthropologist would have wondered why railroad
passengers in the South were segregated according to
skin color. This country has had some truly crackpot
ideas in its history. Just ask Trent Lott.
> I recall a sign outside the Fairfield station
> proclaiming the town the "Home of Parsons
> College--the notorious "Flunk-Out U." that later was
> sold to the Maharishi.
The sign DID exist; I downloaded a picture of it from
the Web since I attended Parsons and used the
Fairfield depot a lot. I won't get into "Flunk-Out
U," but I can say that Parsons came by this sobriquet
quite honestly.
> Memory can play tricks after 35 years. I'd
> appreciate any help from the group.
Actually, your memory served you quite well.
I'll be looking forward to seeing your article.
Bill Chambers
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