Re: Military traffic on the D&RGW

At risk of drifting the thread into a quagmire........ We forget how isolated and sequestered people were in this country only these relatively few years ago-- most had not been more than a few miles from their birthplace and lived their lives in cloistered satisfaction.When my Dad was sent to the West Coast from Fort Riley, KS-- about 35 miles from his hometown-- the troop train went through the Royal Gorge. Obviously, most of the troops had never seen anything remotely like these canyons, and a small group panic set in. The train stopped to let the soldiers view the walls of the Gorge, but many were so frightened by the experience that they refused to leave their cars, and many vomited at the sight. Dad was involved in training activities, and recalled that many soldiers from Appalachia had never worn footwear, and had to be introduced gradually to boots.He drilled a number of groups barefooted when they first arrived at Riley. With good Army empathy, they were known as The Awkward Squad. Language was a problem as well, with North Eastern Italian troops utterly unable to communicate with deep Southerners. It is hard to imagine these differences now, yet I suppose our politics reveals many still-active social/geographic divisions that exist to this day......
john