Howdy!
Talk about getting hooked. My parents (father in the Marines) were coming
back from Japan in 1948 and decided to take the Super Chief from LA to
Chicago. I was little but must have enjoyed the ride, because my parents told
me that after that trip I always wanted to take a passenger train over a car.
By the way my babyhood claim to fame on that trip was sitting on Dana Andrews
lap (as I was a cute baby?!?), apparently my diaper failed and I annointed his
blue suit pants.
My wife and I plan to take AMTRAK to St. Louis for next years S Convention.
Bob McCarthy
--- On Sat, 9/6/08, Thomas Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Thomas Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: {S-Scale List} Smoky Mtn's philosophy
To: [email protected]
Date: Saturday, September 6, 2008, 1:26 AM
Well, Bobby Growley was a lucky kid, lived in a large stucco
two-story--probably a SEARS home from the Twenties--with a huge basement. For
show and tell a kid had brought his MARX train set. Everyone was impressed. The
locomotive was the MARX version of a CP Jubilee class without lead or trailing
trucks. Some of you out there must have seen it back when. Anyway, on the walk
home from school--no school bus to tote us the six to eight blocks--Bobby said,
"That train was nothing. Come over to my house and see what I have." He didn't
have to ask me twice. I was more than awed; I was hooked forever.. That of
course was coupled with the fact that every kid in the Minneapolis Public
School system got a train ride to St. Paul and a view of the O-gauge layout in
St. Paul Union Depot. This was kindergarten, and the trip was for mature first
graders. Ours came the following year on the Forest Green and English
stagecoach yellow of the C&NW "400". This was preceded
by a ride to Marshalltown and back on the Chicago Great Western and a view
that fall--October 1947--of the new GN Empire Builder resplendent in sparkling
Omaha Orange and Pullman Green. After all that, I was an addict.
Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .com on behalf of Bob Werre
Sent: Fri 9/5/2008 5:18 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .com
Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Smoky Mtn's philosophy
Hey Tom, you big city guys! Heck we didn't even have kindergarden. My
little town only had a handful of kids with trains, and only two of us
had 'train tables'! One Lionel guy and my meager AF set.
On the liability thing, I didn't eat any trains either but just to prove
what kids will do...I had a little cousin that lodged the top from a Bic
pen up his nose. It was there for a long time before trouble
developed. I believe SHS has a warning on the box regarding age--good
thing there's not a upper limit where they take our trains away as some
of us might be getting close!
Bob Werre, going home shortly to a meeting of the Houston S Gaugers and
hopefully starting a Pine Canyon building kit on Saturday!
>
>
> Ah, yes, the old liability issue. That is most certainly with us. I
> recall, however, that I first noticed Lionel trains when I was in
> kindergarten at Bancroft School in Minneapolis. Bobby Growley took me
> to his basement and showed me a layout, complete with milk platform
> and other operating accessories, the coveted Berkshire locomotive, and
> cannot recall what else. It was all too glorious. A year or two later,
> I became aware of American Flyer. Although I was quite young, I recall
> no inclination to eat the train cars or locomotives. As a practical
> matter, getting even a 6464 box car into the mouth, truncated as it
> was, seemed an impossible task. Besides mother had supper waiting at home..
>
> A few years later, heated arguments arose at school regarding Lionel
> vs. American Flyer. No one won the debates, but they sure were fun.
>
> Tom
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------ --------- --------- ------
Yahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
