UP Brought my Mom and Dad Together
I exist because Union Pacific brought my mom and dad together and the story goes like this:
Both my mom's and dad's families were employed by Union Pacific. My dad quit college and went to work for UP as a station agent's helper in about 1937. My mom's dad was a depot agent on the Plainville Branch in Central Kansas at that time. Railroad work involves moves, especially for the new guys, and my dad had to go to Kansas from Colorado for a job. He ended up working for my grandfather at Hoxie, Kansas. Several other railroaders told him that, "He should check out the station agent's daughter."
Needless to say, they met, fell in love and the rest is history. He retired from Union Pacific in 1979 after 42 years, but it was a great pleasure to him when Steve Lee asked me to help out with some duties in the Cheyenne roundhouse. I volunteered in that capacity for more than eight years and I added another chapter to my mom and dad's love story.
UP depot at Hoxie, Kansas, 1937. Photo by E. Arthur Burrill