Neanderpundit

I may not have a lot of time, but if y’all will send a snail mail address I’ll try to send some postcards from Paris and Africa.

Email your snailmails to mhardig at aol dot com.

go give Tam some loving, she’s lost her kitty.

Roberta links to a sweet story, whcih reminds me of one of mine own.

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away, I was at a “tourist” destination that had live steam locomotives. It was wintry and cold, and the engineers were sitting at the station waiting for the next go-around, and I sweet talked and bribed them until they let me fire the old girl up for a spin around the little circle of track.

I was excited and nervous, the engine pulled three little cars and they were empty and the snow fell as I rounded the curves, feeling the heat and muscle of the old iron as it scuttled along the worn rails. The brass handles worn smooth by the rough hands of a hundred odd years of hard men. The cinders and smoke and steam in my face.

In my life I have done things few people have done. I have steered a plow behind a horse, dug a well, and driven a steam engine. Few people can say that. Fewer still care. But those machines were once the magic muscle that drove this country- without them we might have ended up another soviet, or a bunch of landlocked republics. The iron rail and steam knitted a net across the country that made us one. I’m happy to see the resurgence of rail shipping fueled by- well, by fuel.

What a sharp memory that is.