Train of Thought
While the polar vortex chugs along outside, I’m happy to be stuck at home today letting my mind do the traveling. A little time travel seems right. Back to the early 1960’s…
A blue station wagon pulls in the driveway of my house and out pops a young guy delivering the groceries my Mom bought at the IGA earlier in the day. He plunks the boxes down in the front hall. The deal is that if I help unpack and put away the stuff, I get to spend the rest of the afternoon with the boxes. I eagerly and often way too quickly empty the boxes of tins, jars, cartons, and packages. The magical time is about to begin. No construction, no decoration required, just two empty boxes full of possibility. And two empty grocery boxes become trains.
I cram myself into the front car. The car behind me might be carrying coal, or gold, or my little sister. “All Aboard!” I shout then “Wooo! Wooo!” I lurch my body forward, “ Chuga, chuga, chug, chug.” And we’re off bouncing and jiggling our way along the rails, steel-on-steel screeching around curves. There is no destination in mind, no amazing scenery to behold, no point to the travel other than just the wonderful imaginary experience of riding the rails, and it was grand!
If my Dad was home, he put on the record of train sounds that he had and turned the volume way up. Now that just boosted the experience to a whole new level of reality. Have a listen: here. The album cover pictured in the link is different but this is the cover we had.
Not only were the sound effects unique (the recording was made in the rain along the tracks of the New York Central Railway in 1952), but the record itself was a deep cranberry colour vinyl not the usual black. Very special to my primary school self.
Ah well, time to return to the here and now. A truck pulled into the driveway earlier and my grocery order now sits in the kitchen awaiting sorting.
Can you hear the train whistle?
All Aboard!
©2021 April Hoeller
When I was very young my Father and I would play "train games". We had two train locomotive toys and two dolls in dungarees who were the engineers. They would take the trains through the Rockies ( we lived in Vancouver) to Calgary. There would be storms and landslides and all sorts of dramas all there on the living room floor. In Calgary the two engineer dolls went to a club that was all of my Teddy bears and there was a puppet teddy who was the maître d. My Father was his voice. Then the trip back to Vancouver would finish the train game for that day. Thank you April for reminding me of those times.
ReplyDeleteLovely, Leueen. I had hoped that my memories would trigger others for readers. I had an electric train set. I'll write about that later. Such wonderful times of free-flowing imagination. Best getaway there is these days.
DeleteBest wishes to you and David. Stay well.
My dad would flip-over the kitchen table and stools, and they became ships in the kitchen floor sea for me and my other older borther and sister. We had storms, rescue, and my mum mad at my dad for disabling her workspace.
ReplyDeleteAh... the ships and the sea. I did that too and there was even a record of sound effects to go with it. Still, trains were the more typical. I guess that comes from living where the sea is a long way off while the sound of train whistles is a common occurrence.
DeleteThanks for sharing such a lovely memory, Jon. All the best. Stay safe.
I LOVE this memory. My daddy worked for the L & N railroad. What a cool record to have - sounds of the railroad!!!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Lisa. It was such a special time, a free flight of imagination to lift doldrums to this day. Best wishes. Stay safe.
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