Choo choo! A Really Useful Engine

You might've guessed it...Soren was a TRAIN ENGINEER for Halloween! And the driver of not just any engine, but James the splendid red steam engine from the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. Note the little brass bell, with a cord for Soren to pull. He rang it all through the downtown parade, and at every road crossing.

Dad was James' fireman (with one of those choo-choo wooden whistles in his pocket) and yours truly was a character named Sir Topham Hatt, the director of the railway. (In early editions, his name was the Fat Controller.) With a pillow for stuffing, I had the warmest costume for sure.

Thanks to our community theatre for the loan of the top hat, to Jeff for putting his woodshop skills to such creative use, to our neighbor Steve for taking these family shots, and to the Rev. W. Awdry for getting his railway stories into print in England in 1945. He was the inspiration for all this.

If our son has to be sucked into a branded toy line, we are grateful it is Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, which has a long and distinguished history. There's so much to learn about trains, and he is in love.

And if I had a nickel for every time we heard, "Oh, how cute/adorable!" on our trek downtown, we'd have enough change in our pockets for ice cream cones for everyone.

Better yet, Soren skipped his afternoon nap in all the excitement and now Jeff and I are all alone after he crashed at 6 p.m. (a very rare occurrence). We just opened a bottle of locally produced Finnriver hard cider and are about to watch a Canadian zombie humor-love story movie called Fido.

Again, Happy Halloween to all!