posted on 13 May 2017

Stories on the train

I have always travelled a lot by train as I don't drive and usually find the experience to be a good one as long as I have plenty to do. I am usually on my own and so its a welcome chance to gaze out of the window, think, read, write, knit and graze over a pre prepared picnic. When my children were much younger, they used to love packing a bag full of paper, pencils, crayons, puzzles, comics and books plus other toys and plenty of snacks to keep them entertained on a long journey. The  train was part of the adventure of travelling and the journey was always enjoyable because they had lots to keep them busy. I can remember giving my seven year old daughter a small notebook and pencil and asking her to make her own book which, once she realised that spelling didn't matter, she enthusiastically scribbled away writing several pages of an imaginative  story inspired by ' The Magic Faraway Tree'. I wish that I still had it because she never had the opportunity to do that kind of thing at school and didn't usually much like writing. My son loved drawing with felt pens and always filled a pad with meticulously detailed characters and stories that became more sophisticated as he grew in confidence so that by the age of nine he was producing impressive comic strips. I also used to read lots of stories to them as we travelled and I guess that they used to like having my undivided attention, not something that would have happened if I had been driving them by car. A long train journey taken back in the twentieth century provided children with the chance to complete something really imaginative without too much distraction which I'm not sure is the case any more.

I've observed children travelling more recently and noticed that lots of them are focussed on screens watching films and playing games, as are the adults with them. There is nothing wrong with this and Im sure that I would have had something similar to add to the range of activities for my two to enjoy on the train. Some families settle down with bags packed with drawing and books as well - but this is rare. Perhaps this is because lots of people usually travel by car which is a very different experience ?

When travelling to do events for The Letterpress Project, I always have a few books in my bag and recently lent a few board books to a dad who was trying to calm a fractious one year old. As soon as they started looking at them together, the child stopped crying and was completely engrossed for the rest of the journey as his dad read them several times and then he looked at them by himself. The other day I was sitting opposite a girl of about four who was wriggling about and claiming that she was bored so I lent her a couple of books that I just happened to have with me and she was very happy as a result.

What a nice idea it might be to have a trolley of books on the train for which people could make a voluntary donation or just return them at the end of the journey. Ok, maybe thats a bit of a fantasy so instead I will continue to look out for likely children and keep a few books with me in my bag for them to borrow. I'm also very much looking forward to exciting train journeys with my grandchildren in the not too distant future with plenty of books, paper, pencils and a delicious picnic of course.

Karen Argent

May 2017