Transportation
Above: Richard Crabtree supplies this photo of a Frisco 4-4-0 locomotive parked at the Vernon depot in 1951. The Frisco passenger depot was located on the south side of the tracks between Main St. and Cumberland St.
The railroad was still used when I was a little girl. Trains carried mostly grain to the grain elevators and oil to the refineries. Passenger trains also occupied the tracks, as people travelled by train to neighboring towns and occasionally across the nation. I remember going down to the train depot for a field trip with my classmates and riding the train (my first time on a train) to a neighboring town. We turned around and came back, and for me, that was quite a trip! I clearly remember the old train depot.
We
also had a Grey Hound Bus terminal and it was OFTEN used by people. I remember
taking several trips with mother by bus to see relatives, as it was the most
convenient and carefree way to travel. Many times, we went to the bus terminal
to pick up family relatives who were coming to Vernon for a visit.
The
jet airliner that carried passengers wasn’t invented until 1958 and took a
while to catch on for those of us use to taking the train or bus. I remember on
several trips with Mother and Daddy to Dallas, that Daddy would take us out on
the highway by Love Field and park our car on the side of the road, just
underneath where the planes flew over to land on the runway. It seemed surreal
to see something so huge and loud and powerful in the air. It was an incredible
experience in the 70s to begin using a jet for transportation. Wichita Falls built a small airport that we
used to make a flight to Dallas for our connection to other places. Paula by
this time was an air force wife and we would travel by plane to visit her.
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