W3 Book Club-"Orphan Train"

Written & compiled by Teri E. Popp & Laura Chin, Tastemakers in Residence

"Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline

Woo woo!!  Everyone in book club hopped on board for "Orphan Train" donning either train conductor, engineering or 1930's garb.  

To keep our theme on track, our co-hosts served a typical 1930's, Minnesota-style, Sunday dinner including all the fixings:

Specialty Drink:
*Honey Vodka Lemonade

Main Course:
*Relish Tray
*Grandma's Home Baked Chicken
*German Potato Salad
*Farm Fresh Vegetable Medley
*White Rolls with Butter and Minnesota Gold Honey

Dessert:
*10,000 Lakes Lemon Bundt Cake

We learned about the pilgrimage of thousands of children who rode the so-called orphan train from 1854 to 1929 in Christina Baker Kline's informative, and heart wrenching, book "Orphan Train."  Uprooted from New York-and oftentimes immigrants-some children went on to live lives loved and cared for in their new mid-western homes.  But others lived in virtual servitude as farm workers or laborers.  Told from both the perspective of a young women in our current day foster care system in Maine, and, in flashback, of a girl forced to ride the orphan train to a new and unfamiliar life in the late 1920's in Minnesota, Kline's book resonates with train aficionados, as well as non-rail enthusiasts. 

The end to a beautiful Minnesota evening with W3 Book Club. For more information on how to start your own Wine, Women & Words Book Club see W3 Book Club; The Back Story