I have to admit reading these stories did bring up a lot of emotions (and nicely enough, good ones, tinged with a bit of sadness, though my mom died many years ago, in the mid 90's). My mom loved trains, though I don't think she herself had trains growing up in the 1930's (her brother did, I am sure, I know from visiting my aunt after he passed away that they had pre war trains; they were fortunate, my grandfather worked for the controller of Union Carbide (or whatever it was called back then), so they were comfortable).
I have told the story here, that the trains I have started with a christmas gift for my dad the first year they were married, she found out he never had trains and felt that was horrible, so her first gift to him was a pretty good size collection of trains (my uncle that year bought the same thing for his son, then all of 9 months old, my mom told him to duplicate the order). In any event, I have at least some of those trains still, and my mom always loved the trains we had set up at home. I like to think my mom's spirit is in my wife in some ways, she is the one that encourages me to bring trains back to life (I have a very hard time spending money on myself)..unfortunately our son was a black sheep, he never really was into trains, music was his thing (my wife and I couldn't hold a tune or play an instrument to save our souls...).
Thanks all for sharing, Arnold for starting this (and now that Covid at least is being made to beat something of a retreat, may we get to meet in person someday soon, maybe at the next White Plains show). I really needed a lift today, this helped
