My Midnight Train to History
Around the turn of the year some thing inspired me to take a break and get away from Buffalo’s tundra like weather, and I decided to visit my two daughters who live in warm Houston Texas. This is something I’ve done several times previously. But I’m get ting old and impatient with flying and the TSA scrutiny, so I decided to do something different this time and take the Amtrak train to Houston to make an adventure out of my vacation. I hadn’t ridden on a train in many years, and never for that distance. The 1500 mile trip from Buffalo to Houston required transferring trains in Chicago.
A few weeks before my train departure, I saw a Facebook post that an old grammar school friend Cheryl Spear man-Tyson had posted. She moved to Little Rock Arkansas several years ago, and we have remained “real” friends for 65 years. She announced a very special birthday party for her mother, Mrs. Anna Lee Spearman, also formally of Buffalo, who celebrated her 107th birthday; you read that right, 107 years old, born in 1919 in Little Rock Arkansas.
As a boy in third grade, her son Daryl Spearman was my best buddy at P.S 53, and I would have sleep overs at the Spearmen home on Humboldt Ave. on several occasions—before the expressway was constructed. Mrs. Spearman was like a perfect TV mom, the picture-perfect homemaker, some thing that made an impression on my young mind. I never forgot those special times. By sheer serendipity I realized the train route to Houston stopped in Little Rock Arkansas. I adjusted my trip itinerary to get off in Arkansas to attend the party, and it worked out perfectly.
The train dropped me off at the Little Rock Train station at 4:30 am. Thank goodness for modern tech— smart phones and Ubers. I was able to summon an Uber to take me to Down town Little Rock. When I arrived at the gathering the next day, Mrs. Spear man recognized immediately. She had not seen me in over 60 years. She is still a truly remarkable human being with all her faculties and sensibilities, as good as anyone in the room. She looks unbelievable, she appears no older than 80 years of age, with beautiful skin and few wrinkles. Truly remarkable.
The party was organized by her devoted daughter Cheryl Spearman Tyson. Scores a family and friends were on hand to wish her well and to sing happy birthday to Anna—The Stevie Wonder version. The local media covered this remarkable story. After the party. I stayed the weekend in Little Rock to visit my old friends before deciding to fly to Houston, after learning the train to Houston left Little Rock at 4:30 AM. I wasn’t going to get up that early.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed my train trip; It was relaxing and stress free. However, I had sleep ing car accommodation—i.e., a bed, where I slept like a baby the whole trip. However, had I travelled by coach, sitting in seats the entire trip, I might have had a different take on the trip. As of this moment, I’m still on vacation in Houston, where it is 70 degrees, chilling with my daughters and grandbabies