Oct. 28, 1965
Pullman, Wash., Herald
A total of 208 kindergartners, the great majority taking their first ride on a train, have been going to Moscow this week on the Northern Pacific “Bug,” Pullman’s last passenger service threatened with extinction.
The 51 children shown in this Pullman Herald photo were accompanied by their teachers, Miss Suzanne Dayot and Mrs. Dale Martin. This was the Monday group that waited 20 minutes for the southeast bound 10:55 one-car train.
The 52 who started their “mission to Moscow,” Friday had a longer wait since the train that day was 90 minutes late. Making for some pretty hungry children before they bussed back from the Idaho city to sack lunches at the Adams School. Teachers that day were Mrs. Claude Simpson and Mrs. Martin.
More than 50 were on Tuesday’s train accompanied by Mrs. Bernard Bobb and a Washington State University practice teacher. Filling out the daily pilgrimages was the Wednesday group, who of more than 50, the last young throng being accompanied by Mrs. Gene Gustafson and Mrs. Robert Doornink.
The Pullman School District furnished the bus which brought back the children. The kindergarten is a private operation jointly of Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. W.S. Butts, which has four morning groups and four afternoon groups in the Adams school on College Hill.
Mrs. Simpson says that this is the 13th successive year that the kindergartners have taken the ride to Moscow. In most previous years, this has been a school ending project in May or June, with the parents providing transportation back in private cars, commonly followed by a family picnic in Pullman’s Reaney Park.
The October schedule was used this year because of the attempt by the Northern Pacific to discontinue passenger travel on the Spokane to Lewiston branch as of Oct. 31. Even when the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission assured a few days ago that passenger trains must run for four months yet, the decision to hold the runs now was kept under the belief that such a project should be run in good weather.
At a recent meeting of the Kindergarten Parents-Teachers Association the prospect of losing this opportunity for their children was discussed and encouragement was given for the parents who cared to do so to sign the petitions for saving train travel that have been in circulation at Dissmore’s Food Mart and at the CUB.
“This is one of our big projects of the year,” Mrs. Simpson explained. “and annually it means a great deal of motivation. In advance of the trip the children for many days study transportation of all kinds, especially trains and other services to the community.
“As for the trip itself their feeling it is almost impossible to describe. It is new for most, since far more children have traveled by air than by train. They each buy their own tickets, which are given to them in a folder. The way they clutch their tickets, they have become the most precious thing in the world to them. Then they are given paper hats to wear and the conductor punches each ticket.
“On the trip itself, you might not believe it, but here are 50 children so truly excited that they don’t even talk. It is strange to see them traveling and being so quiet.”
Gary Dinsmore, acting Northern Pacific agent, says there has been a recent upsurge in passenger travel out of Pullman, perhaps because the train service has been in the news.