I credit my Mom with getting me hooked and she's my biggest fan when I get a layout set up. Dad did the work when I was little, but Mom was the driving force.
Neither my parents were a a driving force as such, but they sure did what they could to support it. Dad made me several wood train toys as a little kid and got me a Lionel O27 set when I was about 6 or so (I still have the locomotive).
When I was 11 (1981), we were going to be in the Chattanooga area and I asked if we could go to TVRM. SRR 630 was running that day, and Mom asked someone if I could get a cab ride. So without me knowing, Mom comes up and says, "They said you could ride in the cab on the way back."
That was my first RR cab ride ever. They were always doing stuff like that. If we knew of a steam locomotive (even a stuffed and mounted one), we always went to it if was near anywhere we were going.
On family trips from home in Florida to visit family in Tennessee, we'd pass by the Memory Station hobby shop in Watkinsville, GA. They always stopped by and let me look around if they were open. And they usually gave me some money to shop there, too.
Yeah, my folks were the greatest, growing up. God knows they weren't perfect (they were pretty overprotective) but I have very few complaints from my youth as far as they're concerned.
