All Aboard!

This post is about six days overdue (sorry!), but last Saturday, we took Dresden to the old train yard in Grapevine so he could see some real-live "Thomases". He loved every minute of it. And so did I. Not only do I like trains because my son is so into them, but I love trains because they represent a forgotten time, especially old steam trains. I think of dining cars and sleeping cars, ladies in elegant dresses, men in spats and waistcoats, letter-writing with pots of ink, quills scratching on paper, pocketwatches, and gears and dials instead of digital neon. Every few months I become thoroughly depressed that I'm typing on a computer, while texting on my phone, while watching a blu-ray dvd, while wearing jeans and sneakers, and so on and so forth. And I need to be reminded of a time when things were simpler, where beauty was silk and lace and etiquette and poise, and chivalry was not dead and men dressed to impress all day, every day. Although I only caught a glimpse into one of the Grapevine Vintage RR passenger cars, even just seeing the towering old steam engine in its resting place helped me breathe a bit easier that not all of these reminders of the past are gone or fading. That I can still show and teach my son about the "old days" and ways of doing things so that maybe he can appreciate them as he grows up, too, without getting completely lost in video games and technology and action figures. Watching him watch and touch these "iron horses" was a memory I never want to forget...(lots of pics below, sorry!)

An apprehensive touch...

Trains, to me, never seemed so gigantic until we were right up next to one...

Daddy teaching Dresden about the knobs and meters inside the engine...

Joy.

Waving hello

Some good ol' fashioned puddle-jumping

Proud of himself!

Waving to some workers

Reciting the Manifest Destiny speech?

I understand completely that by the time he's in high school, he will undoubtedly be schooling me on the latest video gaming systems and cell phone technology, and he'll probably be e-mailing his homework in to his teacher that he completed on his iPad, or whatever the thing is that will replace the iPad in 16 years...(gulp). But I do hope I am able to instill in my son a love for history, for things that have been swept under the rug and taken out of fashion by the masses; stories and manners and places and objects that deserve to be recognized, appreciated and admired, and in many cases brought to light and put to good use again. All of this, with some Star Wars and Transformers thrown in for good measure, of course ;-D

Happy weekend everyone!

Love,

Cassie, Alex and Dresden