Got my bag, got my reservation
Spent each dime I could afford
Like a child in wild anticipation
Long to hear that, “All aboard!"
To be honest, though I am borrowing some lyrics from the old Doris Day song, “Sentimental Journey,” the idea is only a partial fit. I’ll start with that part. I do have a bag and a reservation to leave Hattiesburg on Amtrak heading to Birmingham. It did cost less than an airplane ticket, but it will also get me there quicker than the roundabout way I would have to take a plane. And the train trip is sentimental.
I’ve loved trains since I was about six and lived atop the hill that had been severed to make the train tracks. The trains shook the house as they passed. One of the engineers, who had known Mama before she had Daddy and daughters, blew his whistle and watched for our waves as he passed. I am not heading to that sentimental growing-up home. That home is long gone. But I am heading to meet my three sisters, also a sentimental part. We will gather in Birmingham and drive to Atlanta where the trip leads to something never dreamed of by that six-year-old who waved at the train.
Beth, the second sister who used to be a real pest to the six-year-old and now an Atlanta resident, has turned out well and booked me for three events. She scheduled me to visit her book club that she had convinced to read Becoming Ezra Jack Keats for their June selection, to speak and have lunch with her companions in her new digs, and to sign books in a local bookstore event. So, if you should find yourself on the north side of Atlanta on Sunday afternoon, June 25 between 1 and 3 PM, you might want to make your way to the Read It Again Bookstore at 3630 Peachtree Parkway, Suite 312, Suwanee, GA. They would love to sell you a copy of Becoming Ezra Jack Keats, and I would love to sign it for you! You might even get to meet Beth, the reformed pest.
