Trip of a Lifetime

I'm 58 years old, and this is about a trip taken almost 50 years ago. When I was 9 years old, my mother, grandmother, and I took the train from Portland, Oregon to Chicago, then to Flint, Michigan--not sure what train it would have been. (My father stayed home to run the farm.) Ultimate destination was the Buick factory in Flint to pick up a new car.

We were from southern Oregon--very rural--and the car salesman even came out to the farm so that my mother could pick out the model and color. I remember it was a dark forest green two door automatic, replacing my mother's old '39 green Buick coupe.

We had first-class accommodations on the train--sleeping compartment--and I remember the club car and feeling so grown up playing cards and drinking ginger ale back there with all the adults. And of course the elegant dining car with the white linen, finger bowls--probably first I had ever seen.

In Chicago we visited some railroad expedition and watched some sort of spectacle over the lake with fireworks. And I seem to remember going to some theater to see George Jessel.

And when we got to Flint, Michigan we got to tour the car factory and watch the cars come off the line and we drove the new car off the grounds. Was really quite wonderful. My grandmother had been widowed for quite a while and a gentleman, who was also picking up a new car, took quite a shine to her but she didn't respond!

Not sure what exact route we took home but we visited friends in Omaha, Nebraska plus Boys Town. I had already been fascinated about Boys Town--the Christmas stamps we'd get each year "He's not heavy, he's my brother!"

We also went through the Black Hills, saw Mt. Rushmore Memorial, car horn got stuck in a tunnel. In Yellowstone we stayed in a neat little rustic lodge, seeing Old Faithful, etc. I have no idea how long we would have been gone, had to have been several weeks.

Florette

 

 

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