I love trains minus living near a stretch of tracks that has many crossings. *grumble* What’s funny about the tracks I currently live near is that right next to them is a sign that reads, “Sound ordinance strongly enforced”. I shit you not. I’ll have to get a picture of that sign someday.
My senior year of high school I used to play hooky all the time and go to a park that was about three miles from where I lived. At this particular park there was an overpass over the tracks which lead to the “beach”. I use the word beach loosely because this was in WA state and the beaches are quite sad – not as sad as those in Alaska, but I digress. I would hang out alone on this overpass and watch the freight trains travel below me. At this spot they would sometimes go very slow and I kept trying to work up the courage to hitch a ride and see where it would take me.
I moved to Michigan three days after graduation and after signing up for the Navy. My first train ride was when I was shipped off to boot camp from Michigan to Great Mistakes Great Lakes Illinois. Despite that I still love trains. It probably helped that anytime we had liberty in boot camp it was the train that also took us away to Chicago for the day.
I would never want to live close to tracks, but I do like the sound of a train in the distance at night.
You may not have felt inspired by the theme but you wrote a moving piece about the role of trains in your life.
Skittles, yeah I don’t think most people want to live so close to train tracks but it’s the area we could afford. I do like the sound in the distance like you I just wish I wasn’t near so many crossings where they have to blow their horns.
Andree, thank you. I guess I had more to say about trains than I thought