Why should one take a train from Vancouver to Toronto? Because be it Air Canada or the others, they just don’t ‘fly’ with me. For this ‘old goat’ a more relaxing train of thought is to experience part of our nation’s expanse well-grounded via the Canadian, eh? For three days, three nights and a bissel more it’s possible to read, reflect and literally ‘keep track’ of everything from memories to puns, trying to branch out and figure out where perhaps they ‘stem’ from. Then it hits you ‘big time’ on the prairies at a ‘stop over’ in Melville, Saskatchewan. An old train station house has the power to help our imaginations recall our past, be it a shtetl in Yahoopitville or an old Schul in Toronto, Ontario.

First a few serious rhyming lines: On a train you read a bit of Bashevis Singer, perhaps The
Magician. Riding on a train, there comes at once that inner admission. The days of the small shtetls, come back again. Where once there was a sense of wonder, where once we had been, and what we had seen.

Then lighter thoughts return to a bit of recent nostalgia such as the 1950’s black and white shows on the wonder called TV.

THE GREAT SHOWS WE REMEMBER

Abbott and Costello with ‘Who’s on first’, Jack Benny’s suffering violin teacher, played by Mel Blanc. For all those great shows, many of us still thirst. Fred Allen, George Burns and Gracie Allan, for the memories, of course, Bob Hope, we thank.