I’m a bit of a train nut. This time, however, it was Ry’s idea. So we drove over to Homewood to catch the IC. Great memories for me, my mom and I would take the same line downtown to shop at Field’s. That was when the cars were deep green, noisy, one level, hot, and had hard to open windows.
My mom would tell me about when she was a girl and took the same trains to the city for school, in fact, the same passenger cars. Kids are funny when you’re trying to share history, sometimes they are all ears other times you just don’t know if they’ve even heard you. I know I was probably the same with my mom. But, I’m glad I listened enough to pass some things on, and I’m pretty persistent about trying to pass it on again. We don’t seem to value this personal history until it’s gone forever. Getting can be tricky, record it, and the pressure is on, hear it when it comes naturally, and you forget to write it down. Then there’s the whole part about passing it on.
Ry’s ears did perk up a bit when he was asking questions about the conductor and why he was putting holes in our tickets. I told him it was the same job is Great Great Grandfather had on the very same rail line we were riding. After that, I was able to share a few more things my mom told me, like how all the conductors new her. No getting out of line for her… but there were more than a few punches that seemed to mysteriously miss her ticket.
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