Having a chat about the choo-choo

In the good old days, one of our main modes of transportation were railroad trains. I have no photographs of the beautiful steam locomotives huffing and puffing at our stations such as B&O, Erie and Pennsylvania. Hindsight is 20/20 and as an award winning amateur photographer, I missed out on an important part of our American history.

I just completed a 25-year documentary on our friendly Amish country farmers and their one tonner Belgian draft and Percheron animal horses. If I lived during the era of our native American Indians I would have been photographing them.

Whenever I visit The Butler Institute of American Art, I always go to the second floor and the beautiful exhibit of native American Indians. It draws me like a magnet.

I have never ridden an animal horse, not even sat on one, yet photographed hundreds of them in Amish country.

My most memorable ride on an Iron Horse was February 1941 arriving in Bremerton, Wash., U.S. Naval Base I boarded a troop train for Toledo, Ohio, to be discharged after combat in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of action during World War II.

I saw some of our country’s most beautiful scenery during our four-day trip, that I had never seen before. Flocks of rainbow-colored male pheasants, foraging for food along the railroad tracks in South Dakota. The steam locomotive didn’t seem to faze them. The snow was stacked 4 feet high as we passed through Butte, Mont.

This train ride is still frozen in my 70-year memory bank. I was honorably discharged on Feb. 20, 1946, at 21 years of age and happy to have played a part in preserving the freedom of our great country, the good old USA.

Michael J. Lacivita is a Youngstown retiree and member of the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame and the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.