Steve's Christmas, December 2018

Steve and his brothers, Picture taken by Steve's mom

Steve's mom dropped him off at our house about noon on Christmas day.  He was smiling and happy.  He had already had a good Christmas.  His mom carried a huge heavy Christmas bag of presents from her and Santa and his brothers.  She said the bag was heavy because his big gift from her was a coffee maker. He was wearing his new shoes from brother, Ted.

In the bedroom, he changed into the sweatshirt and CSX cap from MeeMaw. That was his outfit for the rest of Christmas day and the next day, too.  You can see a bit of his railroad theme socks.  He wore them two days, too.

Shortly after he arrived Sonja, Samantha, and Reagan arrived.  Tom and I were scurrying around in the kitchen and dining room, putting Christmas dinner on the table.  Neither of us thought about taking photos. We had Cadbury milk chocolates and shortbread assortment from Ray and Gretchen for our dessert (and the cherry pie that Tom had requested) Reagan, unknown to us, took a few photos and posted them on Facebook.  Thank you, Reagan.

After dinner, we moved to the living room.  That's where we were when Ray called from London, UK to tell all of us hello (especially Steve) and asked how he liked his Christmas gifts. He still hadn't opened the gifts from his dad and Gretchen.

But,after the call, he opened their Christmas gifts.  These photos are especially for them.

He opened the two DVDs...Norfolk Southern's 30th Anniversary Heritage Locomotives and

Modern Marvels, The London Underground.  (After he finished unwrapping the other gifts, he immediately disappeared down the basement to watch both DVDs).  Nothing is better than trains.)

The box with the Modern Marvels, The London Underground, included a note from Santa Claus.  Steve read it to us..."DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS, Love, Santa".

I poured the candy from Convent Gardens Candy Store into a bowl so we could all get a good look at it.  Reagan looked up the candy store on her cell phone so Steve could see the store it might have come from.  Reagan said there are a lot of the stores throughout the area.

He liked the model of the doubledecker bus. 

The tote bag from the London Transport Museum was the perfect size to hold all his gifts.

On Wednesday, Steve and I went to Menards to do a little shopping.  He spent most of the rest of the day in the basement listening to his new DVDs.  He also opened the box he received from Santa at his mom's.  Guess what!  It was a miniature train.

On Thursday, Steve and I drove to the post office so he could mail his box of gifts to his dad and Gretchen. When we came back to the house, he brought the bus, still in its box to me.  He asked me if I had a little screwdriver. Once the box was open, he sat on the couch for a long time just looking at the bus, reading the printing on it.  He said, "I'd like to ride in one of these someday."

It was on Thursday , too, that he took the shirt from the London Transport Museum out of its box and brought me his yellow-covered book, Winnie the Pooh.  I showed him the book that I read to his dad when his dad was little.  Then we sat close together on the couch and I read him the first chapter, the story of how Winnie the Pooh had tried to get honey from a bee hive by floating up to it using a balloon.

That reminded him of a Christmas gift in the big Christmas bag his mom carried in for him when he arrived on Christmas day...bee magnets from his brother, John.

The bees.

Dayton Train Show, November 4, 2018

The day was overcast and windy but it wasn't raining.  Hooray!  Our van was parked way out.  Steve spotted the Ford from the 50s immediately and took a photo with his cell phone.  Parked next to it was a very nice  Porsche but he liked the Ford better.

Tom and Steve headed toward the entrance to the show.  I tagged along behind.

Inside, Tom paid our entrance fees and we put on our wrist bands.  My first thought was if this is the train show, it has really shrunk in size.  And then the money taker told us this was only one of four sections to the show.  There was another tent the size of this one and two permanent cement block buildings as well.

The buildings are the first ones that have been put up at the new Montgomery County Fair Grounds.  I am impressed.  The chosen site is beautiful, and large.  The old Montgomery Fair Grounds was close to the heart of Dayton and crowded.

Steve had two goals in mind.  I don't know was highest on his list but I think it was seeing Sam Swanson.  The other goal was just being at the Dayton Train show.

Steve is well known at the show.  His dad, Ray, was active in setting it up for many years.  Vendors know him...

And Exhibitors know him...These two asked me to remind Ray, Steve's dad, that Ray had been the one who got them into working this show.

I followed Steve from place to place until my legs wore out.

Here is an overview of part of one of the buildings.  When Steve saw closest train, he ran to the layout.  "It's The Spirit.  It's The Spirit.  I saw the real one with my dad."  

The Spirit is first in line, a locomotive painted to honor the U.S. Armed Forces.  Here is a closer look for you. It was traveling at a good clip so the photo is not quite in focus.  I didn't think about switching to video mod. 

While Steve and I were roaming about, Tom found a treasure, an advertisement with a map of the Nickel Plate Railroad which ran along the back property line of his childhood home.  He gave it to Steve to hang in his bedroom.

By the time I saw Tom, I was worn out from keeping up with Steve. Tom took over keeping up with Steve. I found a chair and sat down.

Shortly afterward, Terry came and sat down beside me.

I told him Steve was searching was searching for Sam.  Terry said, " I know he is here.  Maybe he stepped out to get something to eat." 

What was even nicer was that Terry started calling Sam on his cell phone.  Sam's phone was busy.  Terry kept trying every five or ten minutes and eventually reached Sam.  By this time I was back to following after Steve.  We were at a train layout talking to a vendor when along came Sam.

There were trains in every imaginable gauge.  Steve seemed most drawn to the HO and N gauges.  

Above is a rail yard in an N gauge layout.

This man's hand adding a car shows the tiny size of N gauge.

This is the town on  the N gauge layout.

Here is FRED...The arrow points to him...Flashing Rear End Device.  Like always, Steve said, "Hello, FRED.  Goodbye, FRED."

Closer view of FRED...

And here is Sam.  Thanks, Terry and everyone else who alerted Sam that Steve was looking for him.

Mission accomplished.  Steve and Sam had a good reunion.  Later Tom and Sam had a good talk, too.                                  

Our First Noticeable Frost, Oct, 18, 2018

I looked out the dining room window...a skim of ice on the birdbath.

I looked out the garage door...orange-red leaves on the neighbor's treetop.

In the neighbor's yard...white frosted tips on the evergreens, white frosted grass on the ground.

I walked out to the prairie patch...Frost on the seedheads of the bergamot.

Fall is here.

Tipp City Mum Festival, September 30, 2018

Tom was on a mission.  When he is in a crowd, foremost in his mind is navigating through it.  I followed along behind and looked at booths and signs.  Over in the distance on the left side of the photo is the Tipp City High School Football Stadium.  A group of citizens are in the process of raising money to renovate it.  This year they collected enough to redo the field. There is an overall plan and they choose sections of it to work on as the money is collected.

I think  renovating the stands is next on their list.  I hope so.

This was the sixtieth year for the festival.  When it started, the Springhill Nursery had fields of mums planted in fields along the highway so chrysanthemums were the obvious choice for the festival's emphasis.  Since then Springhill has been sold several times and no longer has the fields of mums but the name remains and so do mums at the festival.

Years ago when we were active  in Cub Scouts with our boys, we were part of the Saturday morning  parade.

Later on, I had a booth at the park where I drew charcoal sketches of visitors for ten dollars each.

There must have been  more Tipp area artists and artisans at the park but Tom kept zipping along.  I only saw Paper Alice.  She had a booth at the park when I did and she has continued to have a booth.

She makes beautiful paper from the ads she receives in the mail.  She includes bits of leaves and flower petals and tiny stones and spices from her kitchen to add interest.  She sells her paper, creates art on her paper and teaches others how to make paper.  In this picture, you can see everything she uses to go from start to finish.

And here is a closer look at her paper.

If you are curious about her work  you can get more information at
www.paperalice.com

 The last time we came to the festival in the park, food truck events were a fairly new type of event in our area.  There were only a few food trucks at the park.  This year there were many, many food trucks.

 I photographed this truck because man with the red and black striped cap is one of the old-time baseball players.  Tipp City has an old-time baseball team.  There are others in the area.  They play baseball according to the old-time rules.  There was a baseball tournament in progress.  It was between games for this player.

Local groups as well as food truck owners were selling food.  I remember the Fire Department selling waffles back in the days when we were part of the Cub Scout group.

The park was crowded with booths.  In them people were selling...

bamboo socks...

alpaca sweaters....

Halloween decorations...

Fairy Princess crowns...

and hundreds of other wares.

Tom knew where he wanted to stop...The Miami County Park District tent.

They had a step by step craft set up so people could make a paper flower.

As we were leaving, I looked down the path and there they were...the pick-up basketball players.  I see players on these courts almost every time I drive by the park.  

A pleasant visit to the park on a pleasant day.  The sun was shining. The temperature was in the low 80s and there was a gentle breeze. 

Visit to Bill's HO model train Open House on Saturday, October 6

Steve's dad told us that Bill was having an Open House.  His dad is working overseas for the next three years so he couldn't take Steve to see it.  Since Steve was with us for the weekend , I drove him over to see it.

I didn't tell Steve where we were going but he recognized Bill's street when we turned down it.

It made me happy to see how happy Bill and Steve were to see one another.

Steve noticed immediately that Bill had changed the layout.

This is part of the long train that circled the layout.  Bill said it had been circling the layout for hours without a problem.  Each circle was equal to a mile in HO scale.

Here is Bill's Control Center.

Bill has some little story scenes set up.

This is one.  Bill and some friends are on the railroad property watching the trains.  It is illegal to go onto railroad property but in this case it is all right because the owner, Bill, is one of the watchers.

Down the road, law enforcement is keeping a close eye on Bill and his friends.

Steve enjoyed talking about railroads with Bill and other railroad fans who stopped in to see the layout.

Bill has railroad posters and other memorabilia hung on the wall near the entrance.

Here is a closeup of a drawing by Bill which is displayed on the wall.

On the table in front of the wall is a paper and pen so visitors can sign in.  Bill has had over a hundred visitors this weekend.

There was also a model on the table that Steve recognized.  "My dad made that!"   Steve was talking about the space ship/engine.

"Yes", said Bill.  "Your dad gave it to me the day I went over and helped him take down his train layout  That was a sad day."

The layout was packed away in crates and is now in storage until Steve's dad has a place to set up a layout again.