Ok so it may not be ALL what its about, but is definalty one of those great moments our hobby can give us…
Today, as some of you know, I was at my old house moveing out. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is out of the house, except my layout and train stuff in the garage. I just couldnt bear to rip it up yet. Besides, I am hoeping to cut my wood for the new bench work this week and leaving them in the old garage just keeps them out of the way. I have until the May 1st to be out.
So, today I am loading last stuff from up stairs in the truck with the garage door open behind me when two of the local kids come up and ask if my son is there to play. (We live/d in a apartment/condo type place) I had to explain to the little guys that my son doesnt live there anymore. One was 5, the other 4… They both seemed so sad, but then I caught one looking over at the train layout. Its 50" high and the kids cant see it, but the one knew it what was up there.
I caught him eyeballing it and asked “Hey, wanna see some trains?” The one who knew it was there got all excited, the other, was new,first time I met him, and didnt know about it. Oh, watchin his face light up when he got on top of the milk crate to see it was priceless. His little buddy was telling him all about it like he was the local layout expert. I just smiled and ran the trains…
Well, after 15 minutes, another little kid came over and saw what was going on, well, out came another milkcrate. His sister came over, and came milk crate number 4 was out. I had 4 little ones (bewtween 4 and 6) wathcing the trains go. I had 3 of them running. Soon, they were counting the cars and picking which way they should go (flippin switches) then we were playing the I Spy game, “Can you find the old red pick up?” Then they would go off looking all over for the red pick up, or the blue building, the guy in the yellow chair, the horsey, etc
It lasted for well over half an hour