PittsburghTim posted:My trains are a link to fond memories of my parents, Christmas mornings, and good friends. Christmas morning would find me coming down to our family gameroom to see that Santa had paid a visit on Christmas Eve. The undecorated tree we had put up the day before was all decorated, the 4x8 green platform with a loop of American Flyer track was in place along with all of the Plasticville buildings. I remember running that 326 engine for hours each day. After doing the same for my kids, I can understand why my dad was always so tired by Christmas afternoon.
My mom always encouraged my love for trains, whether the toy variety or the real thing. When I was young, she would coax my dad to pull over so we could watch the trains that would pass near where I grew up. Later, she would take me to the Greenberg train shows when they came to Pittsburgh. While she had my three older siblings to care for and my grandmother as well, she always managed to find the time to get me to the show. Even after I had left home and started a family of my own, she would always pull me aside and slip me a few bucks in the fall and tell me to buy something at the upcoming train show. I would protest and she would insist that I buy something for myself and to consider it my Christmas gift.
My dad, who was always busy running his business(es) when I was younger, got in the act after he sold them and retired. I was shocked one year when he and my mom returned from Florida one winter and presented me with a American Flyer Wide Gauge set in the original boxes, complete with track and transformer. He was especially happy that the set was made the same year he was born, 1928.
Mom passed away in 2010 and my dad just a few months ago. Hardly a day passes without me reflecting on the hardships they both endured for each other and their family. When I run my trains or watch a passing freight from my car, I cannot help thinking of these things.
Add to those memories those of a good friend of mine and my family, a long-time pastor of a nearby Catholic Church. He was a giant of a man both figuratively and literally. He was a life long train buff and each Christmas, he would invite families over to the parish house and run his trains for the kids. He was known to give train sets out to families who could not afford one. The man embodied what a servant of God should be. I can still picture him kneeling on the floor, still wearing his vestments, running the trains of his youth for families with young children.
These are the things that make the trains valuable to me. Fads come and go, prices go up and down, but the memories triggered by running toy trains are priceless.
Tim
Tim,
What great memories you have of exceptional people in your life! You have been blessed!!
