Fresh Air ~ Part 1

July, 1960.

I was at Grand Central Station in New York City ready to begin a two week vacation away from home, away from the Bronx, away from my family and toward something that was totally foreign to me—the fresh air of the New York countryside. 

Mom took me to the train station that morning, the biggest one I’d ever seen, big like a city.  I had my small suitcase with me containing everything I would need.  A tag was pinned to my dress containing my name, the name of the family I was visiting and the name of the station where I was to get off—Croton Falls, NY. 

In my mind’s eye, I can still see it all—getting on the train, being told where to sit, looking out the window at the passing buildings and landscapes, watching as we pulled into each station wondering if it was THE one, being fearful that somehow the people in charge would forget about me and I would miss my station, and then finally getting off and being escorted to the strangers whose names were on the card: Mr. and Mrs. John McCorkle.

And so began my journey as a Fresh Air Fund kid.

In 1877, the Fresh Air Fund was created for the purpose of giving underprivileged New York City kids a taste of fresh country air.  A minister in a small rural town in Pennsylvania asked members of his congregation if they would volunteer as host families for New York City’s neediest kids.  And so it began for the more than 1.7 million kids that followed.

The train ride would take me to the northern most part of Westchester County, to the hamlet of Croton Falls in the town of North Salem.  It seemed like I was on the train for a long time, but looking up the train schedule on Google, I see it is only a 47 mile trip that takes about 1 hour 16 minutes and passes through 27 stations before getting to Croton Falls.  Time is so abstract to a child that an hour can seem like forever, and so it was for me.

I was just nine and a half.  This was my first trip.  My first time away from home.  My first time on a train leaving the city.  My first time traveling without my parents.  My first time staying with strangers.  It was a time of many firsts, and there would be more to come.

Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened to me on my first day in Croton Falls.

~ P