As it is a New Year and I have been erratic with my blogging, I have decided to start the year by joining in the JusJoJan challenge – Just Jot it January. Linda gives us the daily prompt

Today’s prompt is ‘train’.

The word train has featured quite a bit in my life. I remember my mother saying that it was her duty to train her children. She needed to train us to have good manners, be obedient, and master certain skills. Strangely enough, I also remember her telling me that she had to train my hair to grow a certain way. Well, in training us to be well-behaved and become law-abiding citizens she certainly was successful but as far as training my hair was concerned – total failure there!

When I left school, I went to a college to train as a teacher. That was the best decision I ever made in my life and I believed I was trained very well.

Another part of my life where the word train featured was where it refers to a mode of transport. Oh yes – I rode a train throughout my childhood. In the days of my youth and in the part of the country where I lived riding a suburban train was the best mode of transport. I seldom rode on a bus and when I did it was a huge novelty and quite an adventure. I knew the names of all the stations from Fish Hoek where I lived to Simonstown and back to Fish Hoek and then all the way to Cape Town. I rode that train on my own from a very early age. I was seven when I knew how to look up the train timetable, which platform to wait on, how to purchase my ticket and where to get off. In those days it was perfectly normal and safe for a small child to travel unaccompanied by an adult on the suburban train. I would take the train to visit my grandmother – a half-hour journey, to go to the movies – a 15-minute journey and to go to my swimming lessons – a 10-minute journey. My friend and I also travelled on our own all the way to the city for her orthodontic appointments when we were just nine years old! Then for my last two years of school, I went to school in the city – an hour’s journey – and travelled by train to get there and back. What a great way to travel. These days the suburban train service is not as reliable as it was back in the sixties and seventies and crime has been a problem too. Things are in place now to rectify this but one would certainly not allow a small child to travel unaccompanied on a train.

When I went away to college the mode of transport to get there was an overnight train. In fact, the train took two nights. Sometimes this journey would involve changing at a place called De Aar in the middle of the Karoo. Four times a year there and back I would take this train and oh what fun it was! There were, of course, other students riding the train and travelling Second Class you would share a compartment with five others, the bunks being top, middle and bottom on each side! In the compartment was a single wash basin which we all shared. The loo and shower were a short walk down the corridor. Some of us would pay a little extra to get bedding while others would bring a sleeping bag. If you got bedding a steward would make up your bed for you each night. 

There was also a dining car and the food served there was not bad at all. Of course, as we were poor students we would choose the cheapest items on the menu.

The last time I slept on a train was in 1973. The last time I rode the suburban train was in 2004 when I took my grandsons on a train just for the fun of it! They were six and seven years old and had never been on a train in their lives. The look on their faces when the train rumbled into the station was priceless. And they loved it! The next time they went on a train was in their teens and we had to carefully explain how to use the train timetable, how to buy a ticket, which platform to wait on etc. 

Of course, when I travel abroad I use public transport and find it totally awesome. The freedom to just hop on a subway train or a bus and get to your destination without worrying about traffic is beyond amazing. 

Recently I hosted two young German tourists who had been travelling through Africa. They used public transport in every country but in South Africa, they hired a car because our public transport system is so unreliable. Oh if only our trains ran like they did in the sixties – how awesome that would be!