Scotty Mason's December Podcast and Memories

Like about 5,000 others, I listen to the Scotty Mason Show, a free podcast for model railroaders (available directly from Scott's site: http://www.modelrailroadpodcast.com/ or from the iTunes Store). Unlike most of the 5,000 others, however, I'm way behind on my listening.... as in I'm still listening to the December podcast, and here it is, the end of February. Oh well... I'll get through January and February's editions in due course. Of course, by then, March and maybe April's 'casts will be available and I'll still be way behind. Anyhoo....

In one of the segments of the December issue, the guys were discussing how they got started in the hobby. As I listened to Dave Frary remembering the Lionel set he got for Christmas one year, a flood of memories washed over me - which wasn't good, because I happened to be walking on the treadmill at the time and I almost lost my balance. But I digress. I began thinking about a very special Christmas, perhaps my favorite Christmas of all, 1952, when I was in second grade. For weeks, after the Sears Christmas Catalog had come in the mail, I poured over the pictures and description of a 105-piece army set. It came complete with little soldiers in various firing positions, a couple of separate .30-cal and .50-cal machine guns, and a small cardboard fort. I lusted mightily for that army set. Like Ralphie trying to draw his parents' attention to the Daisy Red Rider bb gun in A Christmas Story, I did everything I could think of to attract my parents' attention to the army set. But it seemed to be to no avail. My mother's only comment, and the only indication that she had even looked at the catalog page with the pictures of the soldiers, was, "It's pretty expensive. I don't think your dad can afford that."

The other thing I lusted for that year was a Lionel train set, but I knew that was way beyond the realm of reality. It cost at least twice what the army set cost.

Then one morning about a week before Christmas, my grandmother, who lived with us at the time, overslept and didn't get me up in time for school. On top of it, we'd had about 6" of snow during the night. It was going to be a long, cold walk to Francis Willard Elementary by myself - and I was going to be really late! A half hour later, I was bundled up in my winter coat and my stupid buckled galoshes and starting to trudge up the sidewalk toward Woodland Ave. Suddenly my mother turned the corner in her old DeSoto and headed down the street toward home. I thought something was wrong because she was supposed to be at work. She stopped alongside me and rolled down her window. Why wasn't I at school? "Well, get in... I'll have to drive you... don't you dare look in the back seat!" But it was too late. I had already glanced in the back seat and had seen the box! 105-Piece U.S. Army Combat set, it said on the top. It was all I could do to sit still and look straight ahead while my mother drove me up to the school and let me out. If she suspected I had seen the box, she never let on. And I wasn't about to tell her I had!

For the next week, my mind was in a whirl! I couldn't sleep at night. I didn't hear anything the teacher said to me at school. I didn't even care that I was the last kid picked for the kickball teams at recess. I was going to get a 105-piece army set for Christmas and nothing else mattered!

Finally, Christmas morning arrived. Needless to say, I was in a fever-pitch by that point, and I wasted no time tearing into the wrapping around the large box that contained my soldier set. Pushing all the crap that Santa Claus had left me out of the way, I began setting up my fort in the living room and inspecting those great looking green machine guns and little figures. I was deep in war game strategies two hours later, when my father said it was time to go pick up my other grandmother and bring her over. My grandfather worked for KC P&L and was "on duty" until Christmas afternoon, when he would join us. So off I went with my dad to get his mother.

She met us at the door and asked me to carry a couple of packages out to the car for her. My dad picked up a large cardboard box and headed back to the car. He slid the box across the back seat, and as he did so, I read out loud what it said on the end, which hadn't been wrapped with gift paper. "Marx Electric Train Set. New York Central locomotive. 5 cars. 32' of straight and curved track. 110 volt power pack included" My grandmother, who had walked up to the car right then, spun me around and started laughing, saying "Why, Mikey, I didn't know you could read that well! I should have wrapped the whole box, Mr. Nosey Boy!"

I think I must have gone blind with excitement all the way back home. An army set.... and an electric train set! All in one Christmas! My world was complete!

Later that day, after my grandfather arrived, he and my dad got down on the living room floor with the train set and started running the train around the oval. In fact, they spent so much time playing with my train that I remember wondering if it really was my train.

The morning after Christmas I carried all of my soldiers and the train set upstairs to my bedroom and set it all up on the cold, hardwood floor. All the rest of that Christmas vacation was spent setting up the fort inside the train track oval, watching the train go around and around the fort and soldiers and under the tunnel I built from shoe boxes and gift boxes... it was the perfect Christmas vacation!

In the next couple of years that followed, my father and grandfather added to my train set. A new Lionel power pack that had Reverse, Smoke, and Whistle controls - although my Marx NYC steamer had no whistle or smoke generator, and the controls were useless. A tall red/green yard beacon which revolved around a hot flashlight-type bulb. A set of brown plastic Lionel telephone poles. And so on.... As the years went by, though, I lost interest in the train set and boxed it up, and the soldiers were slowly lost or traded off to my friends or blown to smithereens with firecrackers on the Fourth of July.

But of all the Christmases that followed, of all the gifts I received, none equalled the Christmas when I got my soldier set and the electric train - and I got to see my dad and "papa" on the floor playing together like they were kids.

As noted above, the soldier set is long gone - as it should be after 50+ years. But I still have my Marx train set. It's on a shelf in my basement. One of these days I may get it back out and see if it even still runs.

A Curmudgeonly Thought for the Day.....

Adolescence is that period of a child's life when parents are most difficult.