Take the A Train

"Hurry get on now it's coming

Listen to those rails a'thrumming (all aboard)

Get on the A train

Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem....."

'Take the A Train' was the signature tune for the Duke Ellington orchestra. The A train I'm thinking of is Amtrak. Taking a trip by train is one of the to do's on my bucket list. At some point I need to start crossing things off that list. Maybe Kari's visit is the time to do that.

When Kari and Ken first started talking about coming back for a week this spring, they talked of taking the train back. That plan gave way to the less time traveling, more time there, practicality of flying. But it got me thinking of a trip on the train to Chicago while they are here. The more I think about it, the more it sounds like fun. It could just be an overnight stay in Chicago which would be enough time for a museum or two, a nice dinner, shopping on the magnificent mile - a small taste of the city, not a feast - enough of an experience to decide if we'd want to expand upon it.

I still have faint impressions of taking the train and visiting Chicago when I was in 7th grade - it was 54 years ago, April 27-28, 1956. Mrs. Kimball took the sixth, seventh and eighth graders on a school tour. I think the cost was $25.00. We boarded the train in Corning at 11:55 p.m., got very little sleep and got into Chi-town at 9:10 a.m. I still remember breakfast on the train - the scrambled eggs weren't fully cooked.

We went to the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Science & Industry, the Shedd Aquarium and the Lincoln Park Zoo. We were on such a tight schedule. Dinner was at Fred Harvey's. We left Chicago at 6:30 p.m. and didn't get back to Corning until 6:30 a.m. There was some problem and we spent three hours stuck in Burlington. I would not want to try to crowd all that into one day again! I remember having $5.00 spending money - alot in those days. I also would not want to try to only spend $5.00 in Chicago now.

The more I think about this, the better it sounds........