Who'd a thought?

So I spent some time with my grandma yesterday after I took her to the doctor, and let me tell you, she's a fun one.

It's always fun to hear stories from back when. And yesterday's included a few about her college days. She used to live in Harlingen with her mom and aunts and brother and when it was time to start college at TCU, she took the train! The train? I didn't even know there was a train that would do that.

She'd get on the milk train in the Valley that would stop at all the small towns along the way delivering milk till she got to Houston to switch to the Zephyr. On one such ride, she remembered that they played the Chattanooga Choo Choo the whole way there it seemed. All the boys and girls were getting up in the isles and dancing. It just so happened that she was sitting with this boy she dated from home who did not dance, and when she was asked my this SMU (pronounced sm-you) boy to dance, she accepted. Well hometown boy was not happy, but she didn't care...she'd rather dance!

She the next year or the middle of that year when the war started it was a totally different story on the trains. It was hard to get a seat because the service men were always given seats first. On her way back to TCU the conductor asked her if she'd be willing to stand the whole way to Houston. She said she'd sure try, cause she needed to go! So she stood for quite a while, then sat in the isle on her old typewritter box. Finally about 30 minutes before they got to their destination, some corporal asked if she'd like to sit down. UM, YEA! You'd think they'd be more chivalrous, but I guess they were already doing their duty fighting in the war.

Grandma remarked that TCU became a ghost town with the only boys really remaining were preacher boys. Most of the professors were gone and the newly established Business School was hurting. For one of her accounting classes, they stuck the girls with this ancient retiree, whose mouth was always blue from poor circulation and heart trouble. Turns out, the guy had a heart attack in their class! (I'm sure that made for an interesting lecture!)

So Grandma and her roommate decided they were done with TCU. They were in charge of their education and they wanted the best. TCU was good, but it's business school just wasn't up to snuff in those days and with a lack of qualified professors because of the war. SO, they decided to transfer on down to Austin the next year to their WELL established school.

Gone were the days of the train though. The bus was faster to take to Austin. Although, I'm not the biggest fan of UT, I'm glad she went. Because that's where she met my granddad!

Dancing in the isles of a train. Seems straight out of a Hollywood movie.

All I had was a long car wide with Mr. Bear strapped in the seat next to me and country music.