I am an only child, and a girl, at that. I say that to help you understand that in the 50’s, when my Christmas present was a fully set up Lionel train, with outbuildings, little people, tunnel, all mounted on half of a tennis table that rolled under my bed, that this present for ME was just as much a present from and for my DADDY! We had a lot of fun with that train. I remember being on the floor with my Daddy, Uncles, and boy cousins, having the time of my life, controlling the throttle, watching the puffs of smoke coming from the steam engine, and listening to the wooo wooo of the passing train.

Did it bother me that I was the only female in the room? Not in the least. This was to be a recurring theme through my younger years, as I was the first girl to take drafting in my high school, and one of the few to take physics. Playing with “boy’s toys” certainly had an influence on my lifetime interests.

I helped my Daddy adjust our first television pictures (back when watching the test pattern was actually fun LOL), and watched him tinker with his car. It’s no wonder that I ended up teaching science and math for 29 years.

I was a Daddy’s girl, for sure, and still am. Poor Mama … she never did have the frilly froo froo little girl she had always wanted.

Oh, and we still have that train (worth a small fortune now), well oiled and carefully packed away! It’s been years since we’ve pulled it out and set it up, but just knowing it’s there is somehow comforting.