BEING BORN

I was born in Simms hospital in Arlington, Massachusetts on August 4th, 1944. My mother says I was a twin, but the twin did not survive. (I've always wondered if my parents could not afford me so the other one was given up for adoption). I have a birth mark which may be related to the twin in that we were somehow connected together..

I can remember drinking from a baby bottle and watching the bubbles march like solders up to the top of the bottle. I can remember netting over the crib rails, mosquito netting, I suppose. I remember some sort of toy mobile hanging above me. I remember a blanket spring clamp made to look like a duck. If you could manage to squeeze it hard enough to get the jaws open. It really hurt if you caught your finger in it.

World War II was still going on then, but of course I remember nothing about it. My Father did not participate in the military because he worked on the railroad (Boston and Maine), and railroad men were exempt from military service. The railroads were vital to the national security and to the war effort. My brothers were too young. My Mother's brother (Uncle Eddie [Hoxie]) served in the Coast Guard. Since that time there has been other wars (although they were not called that): Korean, Vietnam, Guatemala, Iraq, and probably others I am not remembering.

TRAINS

I loved to go down the street to the train depot. It was down South Street at the bottom of the hill form where we lived. (I lived in 65 South Street, Bedford, MA, and later in 66.) At the station a single track came in from Lexington. It split and one track went past the baseball field to Billerica, and the other went to Concord. I loved the steel rails and the ties and the smell of creosote, specially on a hot summer's day. Every once and a while a tie would have a nail hammered into it with a number cast into it's top. I always wanted to (but never did) pull one out and keep it for myself. In the early days (at least my early days) three passenger trains came out from Boston in the evening. They would stay the evening at Bedford and go back to Boston in the morning. They were pulled by steam engines, 4-6-2s as I recall. When they came out, and after the passengers got off, the engines would pull up to the water tower, the fireman would get on top of the tender, open the lid to the tender's water tank, lower the big spout from the water tower, and fill the tender with water. Then the train would pull forward across South street beside the lumber company, uncouple the passenger cars, pull up to the "Wye", Back up to the engine house where they stayed the night.

My Father worked on the railroad. He was a Fireman. In the old days he would actually shovel coal from the tender into the firebox. It was very hard work going up the side of a mountain when they had to generate a lot of steam.

That's why I have always loved the railroad and admire big, heavy moving things. Large works of mankind are fascinating..

I would have built a model train set up but I lacked the discipline to carry it through. I acquired the model trains and built some model buildings, cut some plywood, but never finished.

My Father told me two things: "Never work for the railroad." and "Never join the armed forces." He never explained the reasoning. I didn't work for the railroad, but I did join the navy. Just this moment I realize part of the reason: big heavy moving things and large works of mankind.

Love --PapaJ

STARTING AGAIN

I am today trying to figure out the various blogs I have made. I have lost control of the personal stuff. At one time I wanted to move all my stuff to the WordPress software, but now I can't make head-nor-tails of it. I must have lost some key file somewhere.

Well, I've spent too much time trying to find and fix WordPress. The only one I'll keep it on is Submission Is Not Silence (submissionisnotsilence.com). I'll use blogspot from now on trusting that Google will not fail.

My ultimate goal is to provide my thoughts to my boys, as deep or as shallow as they may be. I never knew that my father thought. I would have liked to. So, I will do that here.

I know I put stuff up here before and the other blog, MotorcycleMoment. As I find the old blogs I may re-post them to keep them in one container. (That is, IF I can find them).

-- Love, PapaJ