8 A Nerve-Wracking Train Trip to Dallas

Alice in her squirrel coat, Love Field, Dallas

Once Alice decided when she could join Jack in Dallas, she moved into high gear. In the first two weeks of February 1943 she gave notice at the cleaners, arranged to rent out the house to two acquaintances, packed her household belongings into storage, and bought her train ticket. Still, uncertainty about the trip and where she would stay in Dallas unsettled her.[1]

1 February, Monday

My dearest Jack:

  Well honey first of all I found out how much on the train. $38.12 without a birth other wise it is 60 some dollars so thats out.

2 February, Tuesday

Dearest Jack:

  Honey you must find out more from Mrs. Rogers. Tell her I will be there approx.on the 16^th can she be sure of having a place for me & how much & how far from the field & in what part of town. If you can arrange with her to have a place even a couple of days before I get there to be sure—Will I have to eat all my meals out? 

4 February, Thursday

  Honey I have definitely decided to leave San Francisco Sun. Feb. 14 which is Valintines day & that is your V—present. I will leave S.F. at 8.15 AM. and arrive in Dallas at approx 3:20 P.M. Tuesday, that is if I don’t have trouble making connection in L.A.

7 February, Sunday, a week before departure

  Honey I am getting so excited that I hardley make sense any more. I can’t sleep & don’t feel like eating  I guess it must be love sickness.

  Honey I just wish I knew that you would be at the train depot to meet me when I get there as I will be so scared.

Once Alice got on the train in San Francisco, her problems started. Fifty years later she described her nerve-wracking journey, the trip still vivid in her mind.[2]

“The ‘Daylight,’ Los Angeles to San Francisco, along the California Coast”[3]

14 February 1943: I’d never been on a train in my life before I got on that train in San Francisco. I got on a train and sat down in one place, and then I realized they had assigned seats, so I had to move to another place. When the conductor came around I couldn’t find my ticket. I thought  maybe I’d better get up and go over to the other place where I had sat down, and then I saw it. [Laughing] I had sat on it! Ah, I was a nervous wreck! I sat on the other side of this man that was on the aisle, and was I lucky to sit with him, I tell you! He knew what to do when we arrived in Los Angeles. I mean, he told me what to do. I knew we were going to be late in, too late to catch my train in Los Angeles. Or otherwise it was awfully close. And so he said, “If you miss,” and then he told me where to go where women and children stay.

In Los Angeles I got off of that train, and there the other train was, right there! There was a red cap [porter] there, but they weren’t helping me, and I was running with my luggage to get on the train, and I just got on it, and then it went. And then I’m standing in the aisle with my suitcase because I couldn’t find a place to sit down. I probably should have walked through several cars, but there wasn’t any seats available in that car. So, what happened? Somebody, I guess, wanted to go sit with somebody else in another car. Ahhh! [sigh of great relief] I got to sit down.

Got to Texas, and we missed that connection at San Antonio. Fortunately by that time I was with a serviceman and his wife and another girl that was going to be with her husband. So here we were, the four of us, and I don’t know whose idea it was (it wasn’t mine), someone said, “Let’s go to Juarez!” So we did! We had a room for the night for the four of us, the husband and wife in one bed and the other girl and I in the other bed. I’ll tell you, that was an experience. Juarez was not too good a place.

Alice wrote to Jack from Juarez.

But anyway the next day we got on [the train to Dallas]. Thank God I was with other people who probably knew a lot more about riding trains. I tell you, when we finally got on that train [voice trails off]. But they stopped, and some people got off the train for exercise. Boy, I’ll tell you, I didn’t go very far from the train, and when I heard that whistle, I was like lightning back on that train. I wasn’t going to take any chances of being left there!

Alice survived the train trip and met up with Jack, who had found a place for her to live.

The Taylor house, 9303 Lemmon Ave., Dallas

In Dallas I stayed with Mrs. Taylor.[4] She was a widow, and she had about five rooms for service girls, you know, service men and their wives. I started working for the Post Tailor Shop, but they ruined my beige goin’ away outfit. Then I worked in town, but it was only about a week. When Jack was off I wasn’t there, so he said enough of that, and I quit there.

Jack worked nights in Dallas, so he was able to spend time with Alice during the day, and that’s when their fun began.

 

Jack and Alice not long after her arrival in Dallas

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[1] Alice Kellar (Santa Rosa, California), letters to “Dearest Jack” or “My dearest Jack” [Jack J. Kellar] (Dallas Aviation School, Love Field, Dallas, Texas), 1, 2, 4, and 7 February 1943; Kellar family collection held by the author. The excerpts included in this post are in Alice’s spelling and have been only lightly edited.

[2] Jack J. Kellar and Alice (Streeter) Kellar, interview by Judy Kellar Fox, December 1993; cassette tape recording and transcription held by the author. Lightly edited for readability.

[3] “608—The ‘Daylight,’ Los Angeles to San Francisco, along the California Coast,” postcard about 1938–1940; digital image, “688—Southern Pacific ‘Daylight’ Coast Line,” POSTCARDY: The Postcard Explorer, 29 August 2014 (http://postcardy.blogspot.com/2014/08/southern-pacific-daylight-coast-line.html : accessed 2 February 2018).

[4] Alice’s address was 9303 Lemmon Ave., Dallas, Texas. Alice Streeter Kellar (Dallas, Texas) letter 2 June 1943 to Jack J. Kellar (Indianapolis, Indiana).  For Mrs. Taylor, see 1940 U.S. Census, Dallas County, Texas, population schedule, Dallas City, Enumeration District 255-23, sheet 17B, visitation 406, Mary E. Taylor household; digital image, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com : accessed 2 February 2018); from NARA microfilm T627, roll 4172.