By Linda Ridenour
It is really hard to remember anything when you are 5 or 6 years old but I still remember one vividly when I went to a train station with my family and it was during the late fifties.
My mother, Pam and I started to aboard a train and mother said to me to look at my father. He was waving goodbye to me and I was dumbfounded. When I got seated I realized my father is not coming with us. I felt so terrible and started to cry. I wanted my father to be on the train with us.
I also remember something happened to Pam and me during a breakfast after an awful night without my father, Pam or I dropped our breakfast on us and it was a mess.
We arrived my grandparents’ farm in Iowa and I missed my father terribly and I checked outside through a window everyday hoping that he is coming. (My mother told me this part) I don’t remember anything about returning to our home in California but I do remember very well when I get off a train and my mother gets my attention and pointed, “Look, look”. I looked and saw my father waving to me. Boy, I did run really fast to him and jumped into my father’s big and strong arms. I had a tear in my eyes, as I was so happy to see my father.
That moment has been with me ever since.
