FVRR

"June 24, 1990:  Dora and her friends Johnnie A. and Lorainne S. came -- Dora thought it was the centennial.  These three, Irene and I ate at the Black Knight in Wayne.  Visited with Helen and John afterward."

Once again, I don't have much to work with here.  But, since Dora lived in Fremont and Fremont reminds me of the train ride a bunch of us took, I will post a photo of that event and yak about it a bit.

I believe the train ride on the Fremont Valley Railroad was a gift to Grandpa, but I am not positive about that.  Other photos show that Grandma, Nancy, Mom and Lester, Aunt Irene, Dora, and Rick and I went.  Or perhaps Dora joined us for lunch beforehand and didn't go on the train.  This would have been around 1989, I think.  You will note in the photo that Grandpa has his hand near his back.  I believe he did that when his back hurt -- his bad knee made him have to change his gait a bit, which then bothered his back.  I didn't remember he had that bothering him that early on.  I thought it was only in his later years.  Funny what photos can show sometimes.  Also a bit funny that you can be talking about a man who was then about 82 years old and have it not be "his later years".

I remember from the train ride that it was really bumpy, but fun.  We went to Hooper, got off, gave a little economic boost to the businesses in Hooper, and then got back on and rode back to Fremont.  We didn't get the dinner train ticket package, we just took a ride.  There were a bunch of cub scouts in our car which was somewhat entertaining when the show started.  Our conductor at some point warned us about the train robbers riding alongside the train on their horses.  We looked out and saw them coming after us with guns blazing.  A bit later we stopped and were told the robbers forced the train to stop and that they were boarding the train.  The next thing we knew there were guns being "fired" in our car and our conductor was hauled away by the robbers.  All very exciting!  I recall some of the cub scouts and/or their younger siblings were not too sure it was all a joke.  One photo of the robbers in our car shows a little guy with both hands over his ears looking a little uneasy about the whole thing. 

A fine day all around.  Not so much for the conductor.