The train game

Yesterday on my way to get a few groceries I was stopped by a freight train.

Wow, I thought.  I can’t remember the last time I was stopped by a freight train. Seems like nowadays the roads are built over the tracks or vice verse. Or the tracks are for commuter trains.  Or maybe I’ve just gotten lucky.

But there are train tracks near my house that I know service fright trains. I do not pass them often but yesterday I did and yesterday I got caught.

So while I was “reminiscing” about my past freight train encounters my grandpa popped in my head, which he always does when it comes to trains.

He loved trains and worked on them and in them (he was a conductor for the South Shore commuter train in Chicago) his whole life.  So it’s no surprise that my childhood experiences with him included train museums, train movies, train rides, hearing stories about trains and teaching me the “train game”.

Whenever we were stuck by a freight train or getting bored and antsy walking by train cars in the never ending train barns at the train museums or train stops during our train rides he taught us to play this game.

Freight cars usually have around 5 or 6 numbers on them. Like their “car number” I guess. So he had us ( my two sisters and two cousins and I) race to see who could add up the numbers as single digits the fastest.

For some reason this kept us entertained enough to continue his enjoyment of looking at trains and talking about trains with other train fanatics without hearing 5 nagging grandkids begging to leave.

I was never real good at the game back then. I was the second to the youngest so I had tough competition, but the “game” always stuck with me and every time I was stuck by a freight train and could read the numbers I would add them up. Instead of racing my siblings and cousins I race the train- unless of course one of them happened to be in the car with me. I try to add up the numbers before the next car comes by.

Keeps both my mind sharp and nice memory of my grandpa alive.

3 thoughts on “The train game

  1. That is a good way to make the time go by when stuck at a train. I had tracks in my town growing up that I think I got stuck at probably a thousand times in my life. I used to try and count the trains, but that was impossible. That is a fun game to teach to our kids when we do get stuck.

  2. Thank you so much for taking us along on your memory. I love how you allowed the one moment of getting caught by the train to spin into the memories of you with your grandfather. For you, it was trains. For me, it was stars. For us both, it’s a universal message that we carry loved ones with us in small moments.

  3. Now I know what I will be doing the next time I see a freight train! It will be like a mini math challenge. My parents have always played the “how many trains will pass?” game while eating at Gabe’s in Glenwood which reminded me of that memory which I had forgotten about until your post! So thank you!

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