Baby Chicks Are Coming Tonght!

The arrival of the train from the big city was a reason for many of the townsfolk to gather at the station. Don’t forget this was before TV and the train arriving (3 times a week, if I remember correctly) was a great interruption of everyone’s daily and nightly routines. The train would arrive around 6 PM and usually have one coach car, a mail car, sometimes a freight car and the caboose. Most people came out of curiosity and, for some of the kids, to put pennies on the track (to the admonishment of most of the adults). It is amazing how thin a penny becomes when a huge steam locomotive runs over it. After the train pulled in to the station you would hear people remarking “look who just came home” or “wonder who the parcel from Sears is for?” The biggest turn-out for the train would be when word got out that a farmers baby chicks were arriving. Everyone would be gathered around waiting for the small 3 by 3 foot flat cardboard boxes containing the fluffy little (oh so little and oh so cute) chicks to be unloaded. If it was in the spring or fall when the weather was somewhat chilly, the farmers would quickly cover the boxes with blankets and hurriedly load them in their car or the cab of their truck. You had to be quick to get a glimpse – but everyone seemed to be a little bit happier on their walk back home.