That wondrous day so many years ago when an American president took the night train to Davis
The crowd was almost as big as the town and not a single soul went away disappointed
Over and over I'm hearing people say they can't remember a time when our country was so divided. I've said and thought the same myself.
Then again, I'm sure every participant in the Civil War would dispute the notion that times now are more divided than they were then. Just think, our country had been in existence for barely 70 years and already we were in full-scale and immensely brutal armed conflict among ourselves.
Still, the division today is frighteningly real, even if it pales in comparison to the Civil War.
This got me thinking about my own feelings about our country and its leaders in my short time on this earth, stretching all the way from the days of Harry Truman to present day Joe Biden.
Yes, Harry Truman.
Now, if you're sitting down, I'll tell you a story you might not believe.
Harry Truman, the haberdasher from Missouri, assumed the presidency in 1945 upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt and was stunningly reelected in 1948 over the heavily favored Thomas E. Dewey.
And who, of those who were around at the time, can forget that famous photo of Truman holding up the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune with the embarrassingly false headline: "Dewey Defeats Truman."
But that's not the story I'm about to tell.
On October 3, 1952 at precisely 7:28 p.m. on a beautiful fall evening, a train pulled into the Southern Pacific station in Davis at the very spot where the current terminal is located today.
On that train was President Harry S. Truman, serving out the final few months of his presidency while taking part in an old-fashioned whistle-stop tour in support of Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.
Also on the train was one Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, then a California Attorney General who would go on to serve two terms as California governor before losing his attempt at a third term to Ronald Reagan in 1966.
Pat Brown, of course, was the father of Jerry Brown, who went on to serve four terms as California governor.
Add to that the four years that Gray Davis served, which means California has had 28 full years of governors named after a color.
A large crowd in my humble hometown of 3,000 people at the time turned out to see President Truman.
I was among those thrill seekers in the crowd, though as a six-year-old my view of the president was somewhat obstructed until my dad hoisted me up on his strong shoulders and suddenly I had the best seat in the house.
You might have figured that in a town so small, the train might have simply slowed a bit, giving the president a chance to wave at the crowd from the rear platform while mouthing the words "I Love You Davis" after asking his aides if this town was actually Davis or maybe Dixon.
But no, the train came to a full stop, shocking many of those in attendance who thought this would just be a wink and a wave sort of event.
Truman had carried Yolo County easily in 1948 (52.47 percent to 43.83), helping him to an extremely narrow (47.57 percent to 47.13) statewide victory as well.
Before Truman came into view, emcee George Miller, Jr., a California State Senator, took note of several dignitaries on the train, including Pat Brown, then with dramatic flair said, "It is now my extreme pleasure to introduce the President of the United States, President Harry Truman."
At that point, Truman emerged onto the rear platform to be greeted by loud cheers from a crowd that certainly included a few folks from Woodland and Winters and West Sacramento and maybe even Clarksburg and Esparto.
Truman, who had either a very good memory or extremely diligent staffers who did their homework ahead of time, noted that he had been through Davis once before, in 1948, on his way to Berkeley to receive an honorary degree from the University of California.
He said he understood that Davis had an "agricultural" branch of that great university where many wonderful "experiments" were being carried out to aid farmers everywhere. And he lamented that he didn't have time to "get off this train" and visit the vast fields and crops growing on the Davis campus.
He also noted that California had "one of the greatest governors in all the United States," referring to Earl Warren, who just happened to be a Republican and, of course, later became perhaps the most famous Chief Justice ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court. (Warren's son, Bob, still lives in Davis.)
Playing up the agricultural theme, Truman went on to urge the crowd to vote for Adlai Stevenson come November because his opponent, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Spent all his time in the Army and doesn't know anything about farming."
I know my dad, a University Farm student at the time, heard those words, but given that he served under Ike in World War II, he ended up voting for Eisenhower after all.
Truman spoke for about eight minutes in our small town, which at that point was one of the best eight minutes in my six-year-old life.
Only topped perhaps, by being handed a coupon for a free ice cream cone at the Blue and Gold Fountain on G Street after receiving my first haircut in Davis in anticipation of Truman's appearance in my beloved hometown.
You can reach me at bobdunning@thewaryone.com.
If you've ever doubted that Bob Dunning was our town's greatest storyteller, THIS column is proof of that fact. It would be an interesting tale by itself but that a gentlemen any of us could meet on our own streets today was witness to it, creates a golden glow of the moment it happened. We can taste the delight of the child who realized he was witnessing something unique and special. Thanks, Bob.
Adorable observation about the governors with color names; may I add Schwarzenegger to the sequence? As a lover of the German language, I’m pointing out that there’s “black” in that name. + By the way, for my own parents, the mantra was, “All the way with Adlai!”