A Step Back In Time

When I visited Texarakana’s Union Station in 1975, the once-majestic train depot straddling the Texas-Arkansas line, brought  to life in 1929,  appeared to have become the property of the pigeons.   Even today, I vividly recall Easter 1958.   Miss Bertha White’s first-grade class arrived here for a 19-mile train ride to Ashdown, Arkansas, where we’d step off the train to get a free, colored (and I do mean colored, as in food coloring) Easter chick to take home.   I wonder the fate of those chicks.  For my family, it was a no-brainer since we raised chickens.   My little critter became part of the Sharp family hen house.  Fast-forward to the mid-70s day when these photos were taken.   I have no idea how long the old depot had suffered  the ravages of disuse.   Amazingly, there was the complete absence of “No Trespassing” signs.  Even more interesting was the fact that I found open doors — to a very empty, somewhat spooky space.   Outside, on the tracks, a couple of fellows, probably rail-riders, were the only souls around.  What caught my eye as much as anything was how time literally seemed to have stopped, on the clock above baggage claim,  and on the big clock  outside.  I wonder about Union Station today.  It would be nice if someone could bring life back inside its walls, in some form.   It seems a shame to let it waste away.