Travelers Aid, In the 50's when air travel was in its infancy, most Americans traveled by train, or bus, even more than traveled by automobile as the interstate highway system was years away from being completed. Servicemen, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines utilized the trains and buses almost exclusively, as the railroads and bus companies extended considerable savings to the traveling GI's, in the form of furlough rates. Every big city bus station or train depot had its share of uniform travelers around the clock. Travelers Aid was a volunteer organization that helped all travelers who were passing through their cities. The volunteers were generally middle age and older, and mostly female, many of them were widows of the world wars, Their compassion for the troops was genuine.
I was passing through Washington DC, from my Navy Base in New England, I had arranged for a ride with another shipmate and his brother who had been in the Navy a long time and owned an automobile. The car broke down on the New Jersey Turnpike and I wound up hitchhiking down to DC where I hoped to catch a train on to WV to visit my folks. To say my funds were limited would be a gross understatement, My base pay of $73 had been increased a little in my first year in the Navy and I was now making almost $100 a MONTH, I had paid my share of the expenses for my shipmates brothers car, and of course he needed it all to get his car running again, so I was out that much, I also had enough to pay for a train ticket, but funds to spend the night were out of the question even at the low cost YMCA. I was prepared to sleep in the station that night and take the train on to early the next morning. I chose an empty bench near the travelers aid desk in the terminal.
I was half sleeping, half sitting at around 11 PM when a well dressed middle aged lady came over and asked me if I were planning on spending the night in the terminal, I told her I was and she asked me if I had eaten this evening I told her I ate lunch on the base before I left , I had also taken an apple tucked into my Pea Coat, but it had long since been consumed. She told me her name was Irma and her husband was a Navy Lt, who went down with his submarine during WWII. Irma asked me why I had not sought help from her or the other ladies at Travelers Aid as they were there for just such help, I told her that I didn't like to ask for help and would be alright when I got to WV the next day, I was not completely broke, but needed some funds for my leave, I planned on buying breakfast the next day before boarding the train. She was having none of this and told me to get my bag, that she would take me home with her and feed me and let me sleep at her house, then get me back to the station in time for the train the next day.