A Christmas Memory

I am a very nostalgic person. People have told me I have a good memory. I have a horrible time memorizing things but experiences, particularly the enjoyable ones seem to stay with me.

Christmas time is a stack after stack of stuff of wonderful memories. For instance for the 53rd Christmas in a row there are the set of Lionel Trains my dad bought me back in the day (when I was 6 months old). He, like all dads, knew that you buy gifts for your kids for them and for you as well!

Indulge me for a minute and let me tell you the story of the trains. By the way this is why movies like The Polar Express and even A Christmas Story are among my favorites!

My dad worked for the Grand Union. That was a grocery store chain from another time. Some of you my age and older will remember it. I was born in Queens and we lived on the North Conduit (just across from JFK). I pass by that apartment every time I go to Kennedy to pick someone up. It still has a luster and sense of something special to me.

On my dad's way home from work to that apartment one evening he saw the trains, the Lionel 1956 version, in a store window. He took the subway as we had no car back then. There they were and in a moment that seems to take place only at Christmas he bought the whole set and took them home for his 6 month old son!

For many Christmases around our tree these trains found their place. Then Lionel came out with a village called Plasticville. Various structures were placed there as well.

This year once again the whole display is out! It is one of the Christmas memories from childhood that are with me in it entirety. My grandson, Tristan Mark, has already joined me in looking at them with a sense of wonder.

I close with this memory...