the cousins lived out in the country and had full facilities but grandma/Pa lived right across from the main train yard near the passenger station. The home was built around the early 1900s I think. Coal fired furnace and cooking stove. Mom would heat water on the stove and pour it into the cold water in the bath, which was in the kitchen. I grew up in a modern post war split level in Norfolk so that was my annual connection to the realities of life for some folks.

As a little boy I liked hearing the control tower announcements out in the train yard. I got to know which express trains would come by at what time each night.