The next morning, the five of us "Lothians" were called to the draft office and were told we were to board a train in Jersey City for San Francisco where, we were told we would pick up H.M.S Lothian. The train left about tea-time so we had plenty of time. I visited the dentist (first time ever) to pass the time away and he cleaned and polished my teeth then had my dinner and began to pack my kit-bag. We arrived at the station about 3pm and were each given a long book of tickets and when the train came in we were shown our sleeping berths, there were now ten of us naval ratings, five had joined out party to catch a ship called the "Glenearn", so we had plenty of company, the train was well equipped and comfortable and I settled down to enjoy the journey.
Before the train pulled out, a group of W.V.S women came into our coach and gave us sweets, popcorn and magazines and wished us well, one of the boys for the "Glenearn" mentioned that it was his 21st birthday the next day and they all gave him a kiss and we all cheered and then we were off.
I slept well that night and what I remember most of the next day was pulling into a little place called Levick in Pensylvania, there was a reception committee on the platform, some women dressed in party hats came on board and asked for ordinary seaman Naylor, he looked pretty shocked when they mentioned his name, then they started singing "Happy Birthday to you" - it was the "Glenearn" lad who had mentioned that it was his birthday, the W.V.S had phoned ahead from New York and we were treated to a big birthday cake and a couple of bottles of wine and more popcorn and sweets, the generosity of the American people in wartime never failed to amaze me, we carried on our journey in a very happy frame of mind.
The next stop of note was when we arrived the next evening when we arrived in Chicago, we had to change trains there and also spend a night in an hotel. We took our hand luggage off the train with us and left the kit-bags and hammocks to the porters to put on the other train. We booked in at the hotel and made plans to be at the station at eight o'clock in the morning and then we went out for the night.
Chicago was pretty much like New York but the people seemed different. I suppose they weren't as used to Royal Navy sailors as New Yorkers, it was a very rainy night so we couldn't walk about much, we went into a couple of pubs and talked with the locals who seemed very puzzled at Navy lads being in Chicago. I got tapped by my first American "bum" in Chicago, we were just leaving a pub when a well-dressed man about thirty years old tapped me on the shoulder, "Excuse me sailor" he said quite politely, "could you give me two bits for a cup of coffee?", he went on about hard times he had had, but he didn't ring genuine to me, "I'm sorry - I haven't got much myself", I said which was quite true - he shambled on looking for someone else to put the bite on.
Altogether it was a quiet night in Chicago and we got back to the hotel pretty early. We were up about seven in the morning and after a quick breakfast went to the station and joined the train.
I wish I could remember more of the places we passed through but only odd ones stand out in my memory, of course we were fascinated by the country-side and life on board the train was pretty interesting too, the meals were wonderful and I was eating such things as sweetcorn, sweet potatoes, waffles and pumpkin pie which I'd never even heard of before. There was a "men's room" on the train, a lounge with easy chairs and a bar and we used to gather there and talk with other travellers. I was enjoying life immensely as we sped through the centre of the U.S.A.
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