Train Whistles

Train whistles in the night—probably drifting up to Gordon from the trains south of Verona. It was a creepy sound that caused me to think about the cargo of people; mostly soldiers; or freight—tanks, trucks, and jeeps on their way to war.

I knew a lot of young people who were away from home and off fighting a war somewhere. I also knew some whose sons had been killed in the war and they had taken the same train out of Dayton, Ohio and went off to war.

Those whistle sounds was almost as weird as seeing the searchlight beam from Arlington, Ohio flash on my bedroom wall in Gordon. Train whistles, searchlight beams and barking dogs dominated my nights in those days. I remember when we had to pull our dark green window blinds at night to prevent the enemy from seeing our house. Those were the days of mandatory blackouts. Not a hint of light was allowed to show from any house at night. It was feared that enemy bombers would drop bombs on us if they saw lights below.


Actually, it wasn’t a search light but a beam of line among a whole series of lights that flashed around just like a search light but these were along old US Route 40 from Indianapolis, Indiana to Dayton, Ohio. They were used by airplane pilots to fly the route at night—a kind of direction beacon.

When we got to a major town, like Arcanum or Greenville, and had to cross the railroad tracks, it was a major event when the cars would fly past, almost like flipping the pages of a book. One train car after another passed filled with jeeps, tanks, trucks, and “things” under canvas. Most people shut the motor off to save their gasoline because it was rationed.

Now and then, but not daily, our beloved D&U (Dayton and Union City) train came up from Dayton and as it passed through Gordon, about 30 feet from our house, one or two cars would be loaded with a tank or maybe two trucks or jeeps (something like that) and I stood there glued to the spot watching the train go by.