For many years during the 1900s, the name of Sam Rayburn spelled out one of the greatest centers of power in Washington, D.C.

Some actually have thought that he was more powerful than some of the presidents who came and gone while he was still the Speaker of the House

of Representatives. In fact, he served a total of 17 years as the Speaker of the House. But not just any

Speaker. There was not a single bill that came through Congress that had not received his approval first. He was a powerful man,

and yet he would later look back on his elastious life of power in Washington, D.C., and would say

that none of his experiences had ever rivaled what took place on a railway station in East Texas.

This was nondescript place that was far removed from the holes of power in Washington, D.C.

And yet, it was on that shabby railway station that this man's life was

impacted forever. This man's life was shaped. Sam Rabin would tell the story and he would tell it

again and again and again. He would tell the story with great joy.

He would tell it with great passion.

He would tell it with deep reverence,

and he would tell it with deep emotions,

and often he would tell it in times when he was faces a crisis,

with a personal crisis or political crisis. After all, it dramatically

impacted his life and made him the powerful man that he was. Let me tell you the story.

On one particular day, in the year 1900, in the midst of wind-swept Texas prairie,

Sam's father hitched his buggy and drove his 18-year-old son to town.

His boy was going to college and leaving behind a small farm that his father was

telling all his life. Tiny farm, there were poor people literally living from hand to mouth.

And while father and son was standing there on the platform waiting for the train to come,

both, of course, were experiencing some emotions that you would never understand unless you've been through it

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