Eastern Railroad Discussion > Happy 90th Birthday Dad (Yes there is a train theme here)

Today is my Dad’s 90th birthday. Not many people live to be age 90, although the number who live that long is growing. Census figures that I found estimated five years ago that there are an estimated 2 million people in the United States among the “oldest of the old,” which is defined as age 85 or older. For the past year I've been teasing my dad about how he is "almost old."
 
My Dad grew up on a farm outside of Benton, Illinois. He has never been one to talk about himself. Over the years I gleaned bits and pieces about how tough life was in rural Southern Illinois back then. His family had no running water and it took awhile before they strung electricity lines out that way. The family once had a car, but it broke down and they went without one for several years. Dad grew up during the Great Depression. It was tough enough even before the economy tanked.
 
Dad’s father worked in the coal mines as did his two older brothers. That might have been my dad’s path in life, too, but for the kindness of a railroader he never met although he would see him nearly every day.
 
The family farm was next to a Missouri Pacific branch line that extended from Gorham to Benton. Over the years, Dad liked to tell the story about how he would wave at the train as it chugged toward town. He said it moved rather slowly.
 
A member of the crew noticed him standing there and for some reason he began throwing my dad a newspaper every day, a copy of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Once a week, he would wrap a candy bar inside of the newspaper.
 
Dad read that newspaper religously and it instilled in him a desire to see the world beyond Franklin County. That in turn motivated him to be the first member of his family to attend and later graduate from high school.
 
Let’s fast forward eight decades. It is a nice sunny day in March 2014. In less than two months, Dad will move to Arizona to live with my sister. His second wife had died more than a year earlier and my sister and I were concerned about Dad’s ability to live and care for himself while living alone.
 
I took Amtrak from my home in Cleveland to Mattoon, Illinois, where I grew up and where my Dad lived for more than 50 years and worked as a chiropractor. I wanted to visit with him one more time before he left Illinois.
 
I offered to drive Dad to Benton to visit the cemetery where his parents are buried and to make a swing past the site of the former homestead. We both knew that it would be the last time he would ever see those places.
 
I had in mind trying to recreate the scene of my dad waving to a passing train. The tracks past the old farm now are owned by Union Pacific and part of a route between Chicago and Texas that bypasses St. Louis.
 
Luck is with us. I hear a nearby train horn and a couple of minutes later along comes a westbound UP manifest freight.
 
That is my dad waving in the photo that accompanies this post. He has in his left hand an iPad, which was a Christmas gift to him from my sister. I later held the iPad and turned on the video function as he told the story of how he used to wave at the trains everyday when he was a boy.

Happy birthday, Dad, and may you have many more.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/15 03:58 by SDP40F600.

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Photo 2: This is the head end of the train that my dad is waving at in the earlier post. 

Photos 3 and 4: I stalled for time a little bit after the train passed, hoping to get another one. Perhaps there would be an eastbound meeting the westbound at the end of the double track. Again, I got lucky. There was another train, although it was another westbound. It had a CSX leader. The trailing unit is a former Southern Pacific unit still wearing its original paint.

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A year before the photographs in the previous post were made, I also drove my Dad to Benton to visit the cemetery and the site of his former home. We were about ready to leave the cemetery when I heard a train horn. The former Chicago & Eastern Illinois line to Joppa, Illinois, skirts the edge of the cemetery. We drove over to the northwest side of the cemetery and I got out with my camera. Along came a Union Pacific track inspection vehicle, which can be seen in Photos 5, 6 and 7. These images were made in May 2013.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/15 04:00 by SDP40F600.

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Photo 8: The track inspection car was accompanied by a UP SD70M. The train is headed into town and about to cross the entrance road to the cemetery.

Photo 9: After doing the cemetery visit, we drove out to the site of the farm where my Dad grew up. While there I heard a train horn and along came that inspection train that we had seen earlier at the Benton cemetery. It was headed westbound on the former MoPac branch from Benton to Gorham. I am standing on the location of River Bend Road. When my dad lived here way back when this road crossed the tracks at grade. Today, the road is cut. The farm where my dad grew up is across the tracks and to the left of what is left of the road. The house where the family lived would have been in front of that line of trees. No one lives here today. A cousin of mine who lives in nearby West Frankfort is not sure who owns this property now, but it appears to be lying fallow.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/15 04:02 by SDP40F600.

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Nice tribute, Happy Birthday Sir

Great stories and pics, Happy Birthday!


Jay

Great post. 

What a great tribute.   The end of the life cycle is difficult, but allows one to reflect back and remember and appreciate what your parents did for you.   

His 90th.......that's GREAT!!!!  Happy Birthday.

Nice pics too!!

Happy Birthday!  Good Shots.

Question, is the track inspection vehicle self-powered?? I ask that only after seeing the engine on the other end of the flatcar.

Frank30

Fantastic!  Great pics accompanied by greater stories.

Pop wudda been 95 this year ... i still miss him and i sure he was around ... he was a railroader and sometimes i have railroad questions that he could answer ... we always talked shop whenever we were together ...

What a great story! You'll have to bring him back when he turns 100. 

Rebecca Morgan
Jacobsburg, OH

Great story.  Thanks for sharing and happy birthday to your pop.

One of the more enjouable post I've read on TO in quite awhile.  Happy 90th to your
dad.  As he rolls on to 100, hope you can get to enjoy many more railroad travels.

JWR

Happy Birthday to your Dad. This site really needs a "like" button! Nothing more American than a father and son hanging out together

Posted from iPhone

Happy birthday Sir, and thankyou for sharing your stories...


Steve

Very nice. Thanks for sharing. But I would have rather seen a photo of him waving at the train...

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

 Thank You ...it moved me...give him a hung for me...

Very touching. My best to your Dad, may he continue to wave. ron