Speaking of Mileposts...

Milepost 101

If all goes well, when this is posted, I'll be in Kent, Ohio, at Kent State University for our daughter Jayne's graduation ceremonies.  Talk about a milepost!

For those of you with kids, you know that they grow up fast.  It doesn't seem like it was all that long ago that I took her to the railroad tracks to see & hear her first railroad train.  Ummm... she was less than thrilled, but I never gave up hope.  And, as time went on, if it was good enough for Daddy, it was good enough for her.

We would go watch trains together.  She was more interested in picking up neat looking stones than watching for the trains, but when one would come, we would stand back at a safe distance and count cars, wave and have a good time.  It was a special thrill when the engineer would blow the horn at us.

Later, when she was able to run the throttle on my layout, she would run the train back & forth before she went to bed each night.  Sometimes, I'd hold her and she would just watch them roll by until her eyelids got too heavy and she was out like a light.  Those memories are priceless.

I'm amazed that people today say that they don't have the ability to assemble even the simple Athearn "Blue Box" kits.  When Jayne was about nine years old, she & I would sit at the table and put them together.  She wasn't too interested in my beloved Nickel Plate Road.  She liked the Chessie cars... with the cat on them!  But she could and did put them together by herself.

It is only slightly disappointing that she isn't as interested in trains as much as I am but I can still count on her to take new friends up to the train room to show them what her dad does in his spare time.

So she graduates and goes on to be a nurse here in Findlay at Blanchard Valley Hospital.  A milepost indeed.  Congratulations Jayne; your father is certainly proud of you!

Until next time...

dlm