Joseph's Railroad Dreams
Elementary: Grades 3–4
Story
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A few weeks later, Joseph came home from his usual afternoon activity—watching the "L" train rumble past. His whole family was in the dining room, looking at a map stretched open on the table. Lily ran over and gave him a hug. "We're going, Joseph! We're going!"
His mother smiled too. "We're planning a trip, Joseph. We're going to Omaha, Nebraska, to visit our cousins—by train." Joseph couldn't believe it. His persistence had paid off. He was finally getting his wish. Even Lily seemed excited!
The next few weeks flew by. The family was busy making plans and getting clothes packed and ready. Joseph's parents had been saving a little bit of money every month so they could afford the trip. Now, they finally had enough. Grandpa took Joseph to the ticket office on Clark Street to buy the family's tickets. The windows of the office were covered with posters advertising everywhere you could go by train on that rail line—places like St. Paul, Minnesota; Sioux City, Iowa; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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When they bought the tickets, the clerk gave Joseph a schedule, a pamphlet of the route called "How to Go West," and some postcards that advertised the train line and the places it stopped. Joseph memorized the schedule and traced the path between Chicago and Omaha on the map over and over again. He wondered what it would be like to go beyond Omaha, into the Plains and the Rocky Mountains. Every day, he chose one of the postcards and wrote a short note to his cousin in Omaha about what he thought his first train trip would be like. "The train will be comfortable and it will be such an adventure!" he wrote. The family would leave Chicago in the morning from the Grand Passenger Station on Canal Street and would arrive in Omaha the next afternoon. They would spend the entire night on the train in a Pullman sleeper car. Joseph couldn't wait.
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