He Called Her "Lightning"
Gregg Chadwick Lightning (Edith Desch) 36"x 24" oil on linen 2018 Jersey Memories - Grandma Desch by Gregg Chadwick When I was little and my dad was off in Vietnam during the war, we lived in a small, rented carriage house behind a big estate. On the way to school each morning we would walk by the train platform full of commuters waiting for their ride into the city. I knew my Grandpa Desch drove trains and I often wondered as we passed over the tracks on the bridge on Ridgewood Avenue whether he was in one of the engines down below. It's only thirty minutes by train from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Penn Station in Manhattan. Yet, there seemed to be a world of difference between my town with its quiet gas-lamp lit streets and the bustling avenues in New York City. The train was the artery between those two worlds and I never forgot it. The kitchen in Garwood was where Grandma Desch would spread her warmth. In a similar fashion...
