The Trip Home

The Navy paid my way home only to the first destination. That was to Alhambra; the rest of the way I paid out of my own pocket. I had a job at Sears waiting─if wanted it─but I didn’t want it. I chose coach, knowing riding on a Pullman car didn’t guarantee I’d sleep, and saving money was important at the moment.

My car was almost empty. A young man, several seats ahead of me, kept looking back until he finally got up and asked if I minded his sitting across the aisle from me. As he had a nice-boy-next-door good American look about him, I told him I didn’t mind. He took the aisle seat. I was already in my aisle seat. So he must have had conversation in mind. As the journey was a three-day one, of course, we talked, and ate our meals together in the dining car. Both the conductor and the porter, who came through two or three times a day, bore grins to themselves, when they saw we’d gotten together. And I’d bet we were the nicest travelers they’d ever served in their whole careers. We made no demands and left no trash anywhere.

I don’t recall the man’s name, so I’ll call him William, for that suits him. Not Bill, at least to me, but William. He was from Ohio and making a train trip across the country and back. His family had a metal manufacturing business that had made war materiel, allowing him now to have a real vacation. He had been deferred in the military draft because of his work in the family’s defense business. I asked what the company made in peacetime. He said, “Household items, such as metal tops for crystal salt and pepper shakers.” He added, “Big things too. Whatever is needed.” This was his first vacation since World War II started. I felt he really deserved it.

At night, when we got tired enough to sleep, William, who sat beside me now, turned the seat in front of us backwards, so that we could prop up our feet on it. Soon after the first time we did that, he told me I had pretty legs. He wasn’t being fresh. I don’t think he ever could get fresh with a girl. He was an incredibly nice man. When we actually slept, he was back across the aisle with the seat in front of him turned backwards and his feet on it.

So we talked about many things and solved the problems of the world. You can do a lot of talking in three days. One big date with a really interesting nice guy. We even went to a movie in New Orleans. It was August, and when we stepped off the train, the heat and humidity nearly did me in after eleven months of California weather. I needed air-conditioning. Not every place had air-conditioning in those days. Since we had three hours before the train would continue the journey, William suggested the theater for a cooling-off place. We saw “North West Mounted Police,” starring Gary Cooper. Come to think of it, I’d like to see that movie again. All those bright red jackets on the men, I well remember.

That long date measured about six months of ordinary dating off the train, I figured. Nevertheless, I was totally surprised when William, somewhere between New Orleans and Memphis, proposed marriage. I’m well aware men who become successful in life make up their minds about things quickly, and many of their biographies tell of knowing at first glance the woman they want to marry. Lyndon Johnson was one of those; Dwight Eisenhower, I think, another; Henry Luce (his second wife); and many others. But that didn’t matter. I wasn’t in love, and how could William be? We had not had one romantic moment, so far as I was concerned, and I still thought of Tim. What would William’s mother have thought if he had brought me home with him? I can imagine. And I would have been in military uniform to alarm her further! Perhaps he had in mind stopping off in Nashville a few days first. But I kindly told him no.

If William had gotten to Ohio and then headed back to Nashville, looking for me, I might have considered dating him awhile, but that didn’t happen. He wasn’t in love, but perhaps was seriously looking for a wife. That wasn’t me.

Now you have heard my story in the WAVES. Well, just a small part of it. Let’s get back to now next time.

♥