First Train Ride

Every summer Mrs. Draper and Miss Hazel spent a couple of months in the Ozarks at Bella Vista, Arkansas. The first train ride I remember was when they arranged for my friend, Mary Helen, across the street, and me to visit them in their lodge in Arkansas one summer. They always rode in the Pullman car and arranged for us to do the same.

The Pullman car and the diner had the windows closed and were air conditioned. No cinders in your eyes, but the other cars had no screens even. The trip was about five hours long, and Mary Helen and I had lunch in the diner. Nothing could be finer!

I don’t remember what we ate, but I remember the beautiful white tablecloth, all the knives and forks, etc., but most of all the water glass. It was a stemmed glass, and I was afraid it was going to spill on the beautiful cloth. I would sip enough water so that I thought it wouldn’t spill. The waiter, a black man, would come by and fill it up again. Over and over the waiter and I played that game.

When we reached Bentonville, I guess it was, we took a jitney to Bella Vista. A jitney was a taxicab. I hadn’t thought of that word in years. Bet you never heard it.

In those Ozarks, much was different from flatland Hunt County. The mountains, the pure, clear streams, and we were allowed to roam around, just the two little girls. Someone took us for a ride in one of those open –air cars or jitneys—and we went to Jane, Missouri. That made four states that I had been in , and I was proud of that.