Continuing a Sentimental Journey

I went out on my bike this morning to find places I knew a long time ago.  I wanted get a another picture of the Sutter Buttes... this time from the high point of the 10th Street Bridge that spans the Feather River between Yuba City and Marysville. I crossed the bridge on the north side to get up-river pictures and pictures of the Buttes.  Riding back from Marysville along the south side of the bridge, I enjoyed views of both cities.  

I rode south on the Yuba City side to the 5th Street Bridge and headed back to Marysville to find the spot where I saw President Harry Truman, his wife Bess, and his daughter Margret when they passed through the area on the Presidential train. Facing a tough reelection campaign, he crossed America in June, 1948, on his way to accept an honorary degree at the University of California in Berkeley.  Along the way, Truman made a series of what came to be known as whistlestops--quick stopovers in cities and towns along the path of the railroad.  At each whistlestop, the President made a brief public appearance, often speaking to crowds from the back of the train. His train stopped at the Marysville depot. I was there, a thirteen-year-old boy whose parents believed America owed the man respect and support.  I’ll never forget the moment when he came out onto the platform of the last car and spoke without a microphone to the small crowd.  I liked him immediately. The impression I got was that he could be trusted with a second term as the leader of the “free” world.  This was a time before the Civil Rights Movement, and Truman had angered conservative Southerners, led by Strom Thurmond to form the States’ Rights Democratic Party, by declaring his support of civil rights for all citizens. The majority of the defectors from the Democratic Party soon allied themselves, sometimes uncomfortably, with the GOP.  In the middle of Truman’s first term the GOP won solid majorities in both houses of Congress. The prospects for Truman in November were considered by almost everybody to be grim. In what was supposed to be a private conversation, even his wife predicted that her husband would probably lose in a landslide to Thomas Dewey, the popular governor of New York.  Journalists predicted he would lose, but Truman wouldn’t give up and surprised everybody, even himself, by winning the election. 

 A third destination on my bicycle ride today was to go to the old train depot in Marysville where I had first seen a President.  The train no longer comes to that part of Marysville. The tracks have been removed, and the old depot has been turned into a shelter for the homeless. I imagine Truman would approve.  I walked my bike across the old bridge which is falling into disrepair.  A guy below the bridge got out of a county truck and yelled up at me to be careful.