Such is Life

Such is life

Living near a railroad track I had long ago gotten used to the trains passing, I’d even stopped jumping when the occasional one blew a horn for whatever reason. I kept meaning to ask why some do, though most don’t here, but I never knew who to ask and eventually I kind of got used to that too. I chose to assume it was an alarm for something, a person, or animal, too close to the tracks maybe, and the engineer warning that the train was coming. It made me happier.

Growing up here, walking the rail was a given in our neighborhood. Somehow the neighbors seemed to have agreed upon a age when it suddenly became OK to walk the rails. In my neighborhood it was eleven. We even held a ceremony, as we turned eleven we got a balloon, and everyone watched as we walked our first rail. As an adult I once asked my father how eleven got to be the trust age for walking the rails. He laughed out loud! he said they picked eleven so we would all think we were being “trusted older kids” because they all knew if they said no, we’d sneak behind their backs!

When my husband and I finally found the perfect house at the perfect price, it was near the tracks. Only people who knew living near tracks would even be making offers, hence the lower price.

But when our first child, Evan, was about to turn eleven. I will be the first to admit a bit of panic. However, I turned out OK, and so did my husband Ron, so as leary as we felt, we followed the eleven rule of my childhood.

Guess who grew up to be an actual train engineer! Such is life.