The first time I went to Georgia the family went by train. It was before I was one year old in 1944. We arrived in GA at this Cornella train station. Patty says Uncle Lester met us at the train with a wagon pulled by a mule to take us back to the farm.

The second time we there there was a year later when grandmother became sick. Patty says we drove to Georgia by car and returned on the train.

I had forgotten that I had been to Georgia three times before until Patty reminded me. I have a few very clear memories of the 1945 trip one of which was talking to grandmother lying on a bed after she came home from the hospital. I can also remember playing in the cornstalks* in field on the other side of the barn with Patty and Joel. I think it was when we were waiting for them to bring Grandmother. I can also remember mother and someone else making up more places to sleep by taking the straw mattresses from underneath the feather mattresses on the beds and placing them on the floor. There was a rifle in the room near the door and when I became curious about it and mother yelled at me told me to get away and leave it alone. That's all I seem to remember about that trip.

I had one other memory that didn't seem to fit. That was of Patty leaving me on a swing to go get Grandmother to kill a snake. Patty says this happened when I was only one which makes sense since Grandmother was sick during the trip in 1945. Do I really remember that far back or do I just remember being told about it? I don't know but it seems like a very real memory to me. I just noticed while I was writing this that Patty wrote about this in her book about our grandparents. Maybe she mentioned this enough times when we were young that it reinforced the memory for me.

If I remember what mother told me correctly she said that on the one of the trips there was a soldier on the train that ended up holding me during most of the way. I don't remember the train rides or the ride in the wagon at all.

My mother used to sing a song to us when we were kids. It was called the Lighting Express.

She liked it because it reminded her of our trip on the train. Someone stole her purse which had out tickets in it and all of her money. Later someone found it and returned it to her but the money and the tickets were missing. The conductor let us stay on the train because he remembered seeing her with the tickets earlier.

You can read the lyrics of the song and hear a 1962 sung by W. B. Apple recording of it by going to Wolf Folklore Collection: The Lightning Express (Please, Mr. Conductor) or go to the 1953 WP Burke version

My Sister patty adds:

In 1944 we spent most of the summer in Georgia, maybe 3 months. Daddy couldn't get off work, so we went both ways by train. It was during the war so there were a lot of military on the train.

In 1945 we were gone for a whole month and drove both ways. Uncle John and Daddy took off a month from work. We drove straight through in 3 days without stopping with them taking turns driving. Mother slept on the back seat with you and either Joel or I slept in the back window with the other one on the floor. It was during the war and gas and tires were rationed. We had a lot of flat tires because all they could buy were retreads or recaps, and I remember having 2 flat tires within 30 minutes. They were able to buy some new tires through some connection before we went home. On the way home we stopped in Redlands to buy you a toy for your birthday which was the next day. During the time we were there Uncle Clarence and his family came from North Carolina and Uncle Wiley and his family came from Florida. I can remember sleeping in the same bed with Trudy and Shirley and Wiley Jr. sleeping in the other room upstairs.

Mother was 6 months pregnant when we went, and she was considering staying there until after the baby was born to help take care of Grandma. Grandma died the 7th of November, less than a month after we left to come home.