Born: New Orleans, LA 1937

Grew up in Gentilly off Franklin Ave. near Southern Railway and Louisville & Nashville rights of way.

Interested in railroads since age 4.

• Watched L & N passenger trains head out of New Orleans from stadium where the Jax Girls semi-professional softball team played. My Mom, Dad, brother Rob and I would walk to the stadium from our home; always sat in the highest seats down the 1st base line so we could see L & N trains heading north and northeast out of New Orleans.
• first train ride - summer 1941 - on L & N, New Orleans to Waveband, MS
• next train trip - September 1942 - on Southern Pacific Argonaut - New Orleans to Los Angeles; many military on train.
• Dad worked for the United Fruit Company and was transferred to Long Beach, CA - German U-Boats were sinking more ships in Gulf of Mexico than in the Pacific
• Mom, my brother and I followed him out in September 1942
• late September 1942 - took Pacific Electric from Long Beach to Los Angeles to take Daylight to