The Train Trip

I would like to share a memory of something that happened in 1966-1967.

My husband was in school in Kentucky and in the USMC reserves when the Marine corpse asked him to return to active duty because of the Vietnam War. We quickly moved to California where he was stationed at Camp held Pendleton In preparation for deployment overseas. Our first son was five years old, and our second son was born in June. In October my husband was ordered to Vietnam leaving me with a five-year-old, a new baby, and a puppy and a community of strangers. I decided I needed to return to Illinois to my parents for Christmas.

A neighbor drove the children and me to the train station in Los Angeles. The puppy stayed with the breeder. The train trip across the country seemed to take forever. We only had seats so we slept sitting, there was no dining car so I packed food, and no place to warm baby food so I warmed the jars inside my coat next to my body. Finally we arrived in Illinois. To be welcomed by my parents into the love and warmth of my childhood home was the best gift I could have been given. We decorated the tree, Santa came, and for a little while we forgot about the worry of the war. We stayed a month while the children were spoiled by both sets of grandparents and great-grandparents. The story has an even better ending because after 14 months my husband returned from Vietnam in time for the next Christmas with the children and me.