While perusing my "archives" in preparation for the upcoming BRHS Spring
Meet at Creston on Saturday, i came across a "trip pass" issued to me in 1945.
The issue date on he pass and the endorsement on the back brought back vivid
memories of one of the several trips I made to Chicago with my grandfather
in my growing up years. Some of the trips,,as this one was, were via
automobile to Red Oak, IA and No. 30 (Aksarben Zephyr) to Chicago with return
on one
of the overnight trains (in this case No. 15..basically an all stops local
across Iowa). Some were made via No. 26 Langdon to St. Joseph and No. 56 (The
American Royal..pre AR Zephyr)
This particular trip stands out in my memory for two compelling reasons.
Reason No. l is that my GF ha found out that there was "some guy" at Red Oak
who had a big model railroad in his home and that we would go up early, look
the guy up and see if we could see his railroad, before we got on the train.
You probably have buessed by now who "the guy" was.
We drove to Red Oak, arriving there early in the evening, in ample time
prior to No. 30's scheduled departure (9;50pm), to pay a visit to the mode
railroad guy. My GF made some inquire as to where our prospective host might
live.
He received, what turned out to be erroneous information. We drove to a
home and found no one there and my GF made inquire at the house next door
telling the neighbor who we were and who we were seeking and why. He came
back to
the car and said. This I not the guy we want..This guy is a circus fan, his
name is Carmichael. The guy we want is named Corbin. The neighbor
apparently gave my GF directions to Corbin's home and we went there.
I recall spending a very pleasant couple of hours at Corbin's place, viewing
his railroad and listening to him and my GF talk about the Burlington. As a
little "aside" in the early 80' s Ifound out about the BRHS and that Corbin
was a member. I wrote Corbin and asked if he had any pictures of the Rock
Port Langdon and Northern. As was his custom he promptly copied several RPL&N
pictures and sent them along to me, along with note saying that "Mr.
Hedgpeth had come to his home one time several years ago"..I was happy to
reply to
him that I remembered that visit well, because I was there too. As another
aside, I recall seeing in the Omaha paper sometime in the fairly recent past
(within the last 25 years) an article about a man named Carmichael who lived
in Red Oak, IA and his circus equipment. This confirmed my memories of our
"almost" erroneous tip to his house.
Reason No. 2 for my vivid memories of this trip were confirmed by the dates
on the pass. You see that the pass was issued on April 23, 1945, and it was
good until July 30, 1945. The endorsement by Conductor Lyon on Number 15 or
the return trip is dated 5/10 (45), showing that we got of at Red Oak that
morning. If 15 was OT that would have been 6:15am.
Now those of us in the Geriatric Generation remember very vividly what was
going on in the spring of 1945. For the rest of you, it was the time that WW
II was rapidly coming to an end. As the Allied Forces swept across Europe,
the Nazi atrocities as epitomized by the horrors of the discoveries of the
inhumane treatment of the Jews and others in the German "death camps"
Auschwitz, Buchanwald and others in east German and Poland. The movie houses
were
showing newsreels featured the "discoveries" within these camps. They showed
such items as human skeletons, and lampshades made from human skin and other
unbelievable atrocities.
After my GF had finished his business at 547 West Jackson Blvd, we walked
over to State Street and up to North State Street where the first run movie
houses were located. My GF wanted to take me to a movie to "kill some time"
until train time. (No.15 was due out at 9:00pm)
Next to the movie houses were a number of what I would call "snack shops"
where freshly popped popcorn, fresh roasted peanuts and other goodies, designed
to be consumed by movie goers were sold. the smell emanating from these
emporiums (emporia??) was tantalizing and we, succumbing to its lure, went
inside
to make purchase. It must have been Cashew Nuts, because the flavor of
these goodies always invokes memories of that trip.
After my GF mad the purchase the white coated proprietor behind the counter
said.."Are you going in to see the newsreels"?..My GF said "No we are
not"..very emphatically..I'll never forget the man's reply. He said.."You
better go
to see them...THE BOY WILL NEVER FORGET IT". I guess that comment either
confirmed by GF's resolve to protect me from such stuff or he just ignored
it.
He was always, albeit his gruff exterior, seemingly very concerned about my
seeing or hearing something I shouldn't. Anyhow, I don't remember seeing
the "death camp" movies, but i do remember that we saw....(in part since we
had
to leave before it was over) NATIONAL VELVET with Elizabeth Taylor. I
haven't taken time to check it out, but it seems to me that National Velvet
came
out in 1946..but I'm convinced that's what we saw. I recall that the
theater was full and we had to sit on the front row, which was not a pleasant
experience.
When it was time to leave for the Union Station we walked over and got on
No. 15's sleeper. I remember lying in that lower berth eating the remainder
of
the Cashews.
I'll have the pass with me on Saturday if anyone wants documentation of this
little "tale"
Pete
************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|