Retired Railroader Reunion

                                     

It was my good fortune to attend the first annual Reunion of Retired Santa Fe Employees, Temple, Texas yesterday, September 10, 2016. It is so easy nowadays to come up with excuses not to attend functions such as these, I am so glad I didn't. I spent a fourth of my nearly forty years on the railroad in Temple, Texas. The best ten years of my career. I left Temple in 1988 when the decision was made it would no longer be the Division Headquarters for the Southern Division on the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. It had been twenty-eight years since I had seen most of these fine railroaders.

It was fitting the reunion was held in the old Santa Fe Depot in Temple. A hundred plus of us gathered, we walked a little slower, some didn't walk as straight and upright and some needed help. The weathered faces bore the signs of years of exposure to a sometimes testing but most times gratifying job. Some I didn't recognize until they smiled or I heard them laugh. We relived the past, we laughed, we hugged, we thought of those no longer with us and we cried.

We were all a part of a prouder railroad, the blue and yellow and the majestic silver and red. We all shared the mystique of being part of the Grand old Santa Fe. There were so many of our brothers and sisters who have passed away. Some I had known about their passing, however, there were too many that I didn't know about. They had all walked through the halls of this mighty depot and there were times yesterday when I could have sworn I heard their laughter echoing off the ageing walls.

It was a gratifying feeling being there with so many that had a common history. We had a common love of the Santa Fe Railroad. We all have a common addiction, reliving the way railroading used to be. I am already looking forward to next year. If you have a chance to attend a reunion, whether it be a school reunion, class reunion, work reunion or especially a family reunion don't miss it.  It gives you a few years back, it recharges your heart and it regenerates the respect and love for those that were a part of what made you what you are.