DailySusan Humor Blog

TRAIN OF THOUGHT

Took the day off yesterday and went with a neighbor and some kids, who were off school, to the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in beautiful downtown Council Bluffs, Iowa. It’s in a fixed-up Carnegie library in the Beaux Arts style, a truly beautiful setting for a very well-done museum. A little history never hurts, and the kids got to cavort at Chuck E. Cheese’s afterwards, so they were on their best behavior and didn’t break a thing.

My neighbor is 70-something, and her dad worked for the U.P. for 45 years. She played the drum and her brother played the bugle in the company’s old Drum and Bugle Corps for parades and festivities. She remembers sitting on the lap of U.P. President William Jeffers once in the 1930s, and having him tell her that her freckles were “angel’s kisses.” That’s sweet, since Jeffers was the rough, tough railroad president who helped us win World War II with some rough, tough maneuvers.

By far the favorite exhibit was a locomotive cab simulator. The kids could sit in the engineer’s seat and pull all kinds of levers and twist knobs, while realistic video scenery of North Platte, Neb., and Feather River, Calif., flowed by on all sides of you. It was weird, with no steering wheel. You’d rush into a tunnel and it’d be all dark. You’d follow a chuckling stream in the mountains or enjoy endless prairie vistas, and then suddenly: “WOOO! WOOOOOO!!!!” here’d come another train, passing you.

The kids got to see how massive train wheels are, and looked at maps, saw a demonstration of track replacement, learned what train signals mean, saw amazing Indian bead work, and a stuffed buffalo, and . . . well, it was wonderful.

The engine of learning got fully stoked. We’re all railroad buffs now. Full steam ahead!

------------------------------------------------

Prayer request: My neighbor Norma, a widow of about a year, needs to clean out her basement, but the job seems overwhelming. Lord, help balance her desire to sort through decades of possessions and give things away with her need for rest and recreation. She mustn’t overdo, and she should have the time and energy to really savor the process. Father, use this season of organization to remind her of all the blessings You’ve bestowed on her over the years. (Psalm 118:15)