16th October 1962

I left Belfast with three bairns and two suitcases to emigrate to Utah and join our husband/Daddy there. It was a very emotional time saying goodbye to my Sister-in-law and two nephews and one niece. (I had said my goodbyes to my sister and her family the night before.) My brother accompanied us to Glengall Street where we were to catch the bus for the airport at Nutt's Corner. Unfortunately the airport was fogged in and no flights were leaving so we returned to my brother's home (where we had been living all summer) to try again tomorrow.(Wednesday) Next day my brother and his friend John hired a car and drove us to Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland to get a KLM flight to New York.(I saw more of Ireland the day I left than I had in all my life.) We caught the flight at 2am Thursday morning. So, here I am boarding an airplane at 2am with three toddlers and a cabin of sleeping passengers. After take-off the flight attendant arranged to move us to the front of the cabin, where she fixed a bed on the floor for one child, a bed on the seat on the opposite side of the aisle for another and one laying on the seat next to me. Thus we spent the night, the children slept all the way through. Next morning I was met in N.Y. by my oldest brother John. He and his wife had met the plane the day before when we did not arrive. She had to go home to take care of their boys and John stayed till we arrived. We set out for their home in Alexandria, VA. by car, but had car problems and had to continue by train. Somewhere along the way we got drinks and Archie approached me and said,(in his best Belfast brogue)"Mammy, I don't like this drink with stones in it" (ice). And thus our adventure began.
On the Saturday evening as I tended my brother's boys, we watched "The River of No Return" I decided to call Alan who it turned out was also tending and watching the same movie (tender moment).
We stayed with my brother and his family until Sunday when we left Washington DC by train for Chicago where we boarded the California Zephyr. As we approached Chicago on Monday morning I was chagrined to note it wasn't much different from Belfast. We spent the day in the Mother's lounge (my Stepmother had arranged for Travellers' Aid to meet me and make sure we were ok) until our train left at 3pm.
In the morning we stopped in Denver and the train was washed to prepare for the trip through the Rocky Mountains. As we left Denver and climbed into the mountains I saw the America I was anticipating. The mountains were ablaze with Fall colours and it was beautiful. The children behaved magnificently. The USA was in the middle of the Cuban crisis, so I didn't know if we would soon be a nation at war. We had a programme of the itinerary and about 4pm in the afternoon we crossed over from Colorado into Utah and I cried, I was in Utah. We arrived in Salt Lake about 10pm and there we reunited with our Daddy/husband. What an emotional time that was. Lesley's first remark to her Daddy, "Do you want to keep me?" DID HE WHAT!!!!!


To be continued......