Not many know this...actually, probably no one but Taani and my kids. Well, here it is: I LOVE TRAINS. Yup, it's true. As a small kid we used to travel I-15 through Davis County (north of Salt Lake) where the train tracks run parallel to the freeway and my nose and eyes were glued to the window in anticipation of a Union Pacific passing by. There has always been, and will always be, something beautiful and miraculous about a train to me. I still get excited when we drive along side a train.
My Dad has always loved trains as well. As a child he spent many an hour in his basement playing with brothers on thier Lionel trains. Once he was married to my Mom and my brothers were born we started receiving trains of our own around age 10. It was a right-of-passage to accompany my Dad into the Lionel Train Shoppe in Bountiful, UT (which also doubled as a barber shop, go figure) and pick out our engine. My brother Rick has a steam locomotive, my brother Reed has a Rio Grande, my Dad an Art Deco Sante Fe and me, well, at age 10 I received my Union Pacific.
I have memories playing trains late into the night on our Dad constructed train board with tunnels, bridges, villages, train depots and more. Unfortunately, upon moving to PHX I lost my basement and therefore, lost the ability to set-up my trains. And then West came and I found a use for my trains! One day we will have enough space (and maybe an extra bedroom) that we can put these to full use, but for now I am satisfied that a historic hobby in the Secrist family is being passed to generation number three!
And I look forward to the day I can accompany West to a Lionel Train shop to help him pick his engine.
2 comments:
Marshall LOVES trains too! He likes the Thomas and Friends ones and will build train tracks (with his wooden tracks) and put his trains on that go "allmy by itself". He likes to sit and watch them.
No wonder you and Kalvin were good friends!
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