Push Train Postcard

Push Train I did not know that children dreamt of trains anymore. My own exposure to them has been minimal. As a young child, my Grandfather worked in the engine shops for the railroad, and my babysitter "Grandma West" lived very near the main rail yard. I remember standing at the fence with Gina (a little girl about my age that Grandma West also baby-sat), and watching the activity around the trains. When at full operation, the noise from the yard was deafening; Mammoth engines and rail cars being moved around. The extremely powerful engines throttled up and down. Cars were being joined together. The whistles and bells of the engines. I have related those memories to my daughter through the years. Ashley and I were on the two-lane highway in Kansas when we stopped alongside a city park in one of the small towns on our route. The central focus of the grounds, was this steam engine. We enjoyed our lunch, and after a few photographs and a lap or two around what was obviously the focus of this tiny park, we were on our way. A few days later, Ashley asked, "Dad? Do you remember that train we saw? You know? Where we had lunch?" Almost as quickly as I acknowledged our stop, she continued. "I've been dreaming about that train. Except it’s flying in the air, like you see in those pictures of Santa Claus and the reindeer flying in front of the moon…" As the last echoes of the rail yard cross my mind, I have been thinking, "Some children still dream of trains…"