Birthdays, Christmas, and being thankful.

Hi,

AS some of you might recall, my father immigrated to the US in 1948 and became a citizen in 1950. He was born in the Dutch East Indies. He was very supportive of my railroad interests even though he was not a railfan.

Today, Christmas Eve Day, is my mother's birthday. She introduced me to railroading. She gave me the interest in searching things out and looking for the good where ever I was. We both enjoy the space beauty of the desert and in the sub-alpine high Rocky Mountains, and the tropical Key West and many other items. She was born on the second Christmas Eve after the Great Stock Market Crash that triggered the Great Depression.

Although here father died of Hodgkin's disease when he was 41, here family has lived in the the late 80's and 90's (oldest was an aunt who made 99).

I would never have found the beautiful narrow gauge and the many other places railroad and non-railroad in the US without her. The experiences that topped her life were the two trips behind Eureka - once on the D&S and once on the C&TS. Thanks Dan for that experience. Eureka is a stem locomotive (in her opinion) the way it should be - big stack and colorful.

She was born at 10PM a long time ago on Christmas Eve. I want to thank the many who saved the C&TS and the Eureka that allowed Mom to have that experience.

Merry Christmas and prosperous wishes to all.

Doug vV