Christmas Trains & Childhood Memories of Pennies

Despite whatever regrets I may have about childhood, one thing my dad was good at was being a kid.  I never met either of my grandpas, but I understand they were pretty good at it too.  I'm talking about being kids - not grown idiots that get arrested and set a bad example and act like they are 13 - kids.

Like having fun or doing the things a kid would want to do.

So for Christmas, dad wouldn't spend a bunch of money on the big gifts, but would get me a bunch of small gifts - like dollar store gifts by the boat-load with a few big ones mixed in.  It was a great way of stretching the dollar and maximizing Christmas.  Things like "Flippy subs" and "Jacobs ladders" as well as balsa airplanes were pretty standard fare - and a lot of fun.

But the one thing I really wanted?  An electric train set.  I was fascinated with trains since our trip to Canada back in 1980 when during the whole drive up and back we saw trains that stretched for well over a mile.  I suppose Oaks Amusement Park having a mini-train that I rode on every year at the Portland Police Picnic and just went round and round on contributed.  But a train set in the mind of a child isn't a toy.  It's REAL.  Just as real as a real one.  And I wanted one.  My parents bought me lots of little substitutes from that time to placate me but nothing would do but a REAL train set. And I knew just the man who could get me one.

So I went to see Santa.....


And I told him what I wanted - an electric train set.....

He said he'd see to it....

And Christmas came.....

And Christmas went...

And there was no train set.....

Apparently Santa AND my parents didn't think I was big enough for one yet.  I was maybe five or so.

I was pretty heart broken.  I don't know how this Santa stuff works, but he HAD to know I wanted one and would be responsible with it.  More than that kid and his Red Ryder BB Gun on TV anyways, though this was before he came around....I thought Santa knew everything???

In psychology studies it's been demonstrated that our personalities are very largely similar in childhood as they are when we are adults - looking back at the encounter to follow, I think I can definitely see some similarities - both in reasoning and in...um....oratorical wit for a six year old - which hasn't really stopped when I get fired up even today.

Another year passes and mom takes me down the Oregon City Shopping Center to see Santa again.

My turn comes....

Santa sits there with his arms out telling me it is my turn....

I stand there with my hands on my hips and a scowl on my face....

Mom gives me a bit of a nudge....

So Santa asks me what I want for Christmas from where he sat rather than waiting for me...

And I stood there refusing to move and reply with all the irritation that a 6 year old can muster up without being a spoiled brat quite yet "I want the train set you didn't bring me LAST year!"

Santa's mouth almost dropped and he stopped looking at me.

His eyes narrowed and his gaze shifted up from my six year old frame and turned to a glare at my mother standing next to me who suddenly wasn't next to me and was acting like I wasn't her kid and she was shocked some kid would be so mouthy to Santa.

At any rate, that year - the train set was delivered.  It was there Christmas morning.  Completely set up.  It was an O-Scale steam engine complete with a logging mill and in a giant four foot by six foot wooden box, green grass felt and the entire thing could be picked up and put against the wall if it needed to be put away in one move.

And.....there was my dad and my uncle Randy playing with MY train set!

THE AUDACITY!

That evening when the grandmother and great grandmother came over - I heard how my dad's own train set got violated by his dad and uncles as well.  Must be a family thing.  I was told that Santa asked Dad to test it for me and make sure it worked, just like Santa asked Grandpa to test dad's.

O gauge track

"Well, if SANTA said you could play with it then I guess it's okay.  I mean, he did bring it after all....I'm not gonna argue with Santa...."

At any rate, the O-Scale train was a lot of fun. But I still wanted more.  A "REAL" looking train set - not the "three-railed" O-scale set - I wanted two rails, not three.

So, since income as a seven year old is difficult to come by - I didn't get paid to do chores because I was expected to do chores, and I was too young to mow lawns, I had to find another way to get the train set sooner than Santa would bring it and without having to bug mom and dad for the money.

What to do...what to do....?

Then, my second grade class had a pinata for a party.  We were to all bring a bit of candy and a penny or a few nickles or something in it.

We all got to smash at it with a stick and I learned a few things: One - you don't want to be the person who breaks it open because then you don't see where the goods go.  Second - there's other things more important in this world than candy.  There was cash in that pinata.  Cash in the form of pennies and nickels, dimes and some quarters.

I was small but I was fast.  I was in that circle and I went after the cash as fast as my little arms could go.  The other kids were so stupidly and naively attracted to the candy.  Foolish, foolish children.  There was money to be made here.  Worked for me though! 

HO scale track

In a few moments I literally had a mound of pennies and nickels.

Not just a mound - I had about $30 or $32 dollars in pennies!

That's about 3,200 pennies.

Do you know what about 3,200 pennies looks like or feels like exploding over a crowd of school kids from a pinata?  Its kind of dangerous.  But the danger that makes the more timid souls run for cover bought me time.

When it was over, I sat guarding this massive pile of pennies and had a tootsie roll, a piece of bubble gum and that was it.  Oh, and a butt-load of money for a 7 year old.

When the kids realized what my plan was and that they had the candy and I literally had the biggest pile of money any of us had seen - one of them told me I *HAD* to give them some.

Huh HAH!  Not without a price.  This is where I began being a salesman.

Two pieces of candy for a penny - which is a better deal than just getting it for free. 

So now I'm selling money for candy at far-below-market value (of Candy that is).

The trip home on the bus found me with a paper grocery bag on the seat next to me full of cash and me with a smug grin on my face.  Visions of steam engines danced in my head.  Soon I would have my wish. 

At any rate, I got to buy my HO scale (two rails, not three) train set, but the problem was there wasn't enough room to put it anywhere in the house permanently.  So dad took a 4'x8' piece of plywood and ran four ropes to the four corners and up to a pulley system on the garage ceiling that went to a boat winch.  Now my train set could come down from the ceiling to play and be put up for storage - no problem.

I wish I could say I took good care of the train set, but boys will be boys.  Lots of experiments with collisions and running them off cliffs as well as just use took their toll over the years though I did develop some really nice sets as well.  I learned about electricity and not shocking myself as well as came to loathe electricity.  But besides my bike growing up - probably nothing holds as many wonderful, concentrated and real memories as my train sets.

I never did become an engineer like I wanted to.  I think I'm getting too old to now and I'm on track becoming a psychologist - but for all intents and purposes I was an engineer of the HO-Scale variety.

I think it must be time for my son to get his own train set and me to play with it to test it out first and defile it before he gets to play with it and make a deal with Santa that I'm to test it out.