Home » Boucherville » Train Tracks – Crimson’s Creative Challenge #20

Train Tracks – Crimson’s Creative Challenge #20

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Welcome to Crispina’s weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN

Here’s how it works:

Every Wednesday she posts a photo (this week it’s that one below.)
You respond with something CREATIVE. Click here to see just how wide open this challenge is!

This week, a bit of nostalgia 🙂

Train Tracks

Growing up across the street from the railroad tracks, so to speak, watching the long freighter trains go by, feeling the rumble through my body, listening for the tooting of the horn; all these were part of a daily sensory adventure. Even my tastebuds were affected if I was close enough to get a mouthful of dust stirred up by those furiously turning rail wheels.

There were no fences back then. And no fears. And no rules.

And then one day, the the whistles were no longer allowed to blow in the middle of the night – not that we heard them anyway. And yet we missed them. Times change.

My sons don’t have the same freedom we did. They would have to go out of their way to walk the tracks. As a mother, I can’t help but feel relief that they can’t. I’ve fallen into the trap of over-protection.

48 thoughts on “Train Tracks – Crimson’s Creative Challenge #20”

  1. Love this, especially the focus on sensory perceptions. Yea, the smell, the taste … and though I now live some distance from a track, if the weather allows I still hear an occasional whistle as the train approaches a marshland farm crossing.
    And, too, you’re right about being over-protective. Yet would we have our little ones squashed?

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Dear Dale,

    We lived close to railroad tracks when I was growing up. And I remember the whistles in the middle of the night. Times have definitely changed. Overprotective? I wonder when it comes to trains and tracks. Well done as always.

    Shalom and lotsa hugs,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Rochelle,

      Our house shook so much we had to push the glasses back in the cabinet every few months. Times have. Seems everyone has become overprotective…

      Shalom and Lotsa love and thanks

      Dale

      Like

  3. Q,

    I absolutely love the symbolism here.

    Therein lies the generation gap, doesn’t it? Kids like us who used to have the run of the neighborhood (and for us particularly adventurous kids beyond that), and kids who know play dates and the like. I feel there was something about the freedom of that other time that the next generation did not get to have. At least not to that extent.

    I took the train to be symbolic of time, and the tracks a path.:)

    Another winnah.

    B

    Liked by 1 person

    • B,

      I absolutely thank you.

      The generation gap is so wide, for sure. I tried to give my boys the same freedom as I had but they would have been alone and I got chastised for allowing them to go the park together without me. Across the street, just out ofbmy sight. I guess I should have been tried abd hung.

      I like that you did.

      Muchas gracias,

      Q

      Liked by 1 person

      • There was an element to those freedoms we possessed that buoyed us, strengthened us. We didn’t drown in the struggles, because we learned early on that struggles can always be temporary. Or that there were other ways to deal with them.

        I think kids today definitely have skill sets and talents that help them navigate through the world. But I fear there are some who feel marginalized, and they don’t have confidence enough in their abilities to deal with things. So there was something to be said for learning the world the way we did.

        I’m rambling. But you get what I’m saying. The train tracks were excellent symbolism.

        Liked by 1 person

        • It was a different world… Kids today have a whole ‘nother set of things t o deal with. It’s too bad it’s gone from physical, face-to-face to the sneaky, for all to see and judge without knowing or caring about the what’s what.

          Yes, they have to have a different skill set and I fear for the marginalized.

          Ramble away. I feel as you do.

          And I thank you. You saw even more than I did.

          Liked by 1 person

  5. As young newlyweds, we lived in a flat close to the tracks. You could feel the train coming before you heard or saw it. My parents came over one evening for dinner and the plates started violently vibrating around the table. My husband and I didn’t realize anything was amiss, it’s funny what you become accustomed to, until we looked up and saw the fear on my mother’s face. Then the whistle blew, and we all fell into a fit of laughter. I think it’s safe to say my mother saw the movie “Carrie” way too many times.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. ‘No fences’. ‘No fear’. ‘No rules’. I find myself stuck on these three snippets/tags from your story. Which probably says more about my aberrant mind then the jest of your words. Or. As they say, -you all did done NAILED IT!

    There is no question those locomotive dinosaurs of yesterday caught the fancy of those seeking adventure -the romantic vagabonds. And or, those whom dared to cross to the other side of the tracks.

    The tracks are still there, I believe, just not made of iron, the locomotive not a hulking ferrous monster. Then and now, youthful exuberance inherently figures it all. You did. We did. They will. And mothers do what mothers do, I reckon.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Which is what it’s all about, I certainly think. Thank you!! I shore am happy ya done did think so!

      They were the coolest. We kept hoping one day there would be a passenger train but in all those years, I think I saw one. Musta been lost!

      As one of my friends wrote to me on the link on my FB page, we used to walk the tracks all the way to the “black bridge” which for us, was the summum!

      And I reckon, those of us mothers who gave a little more leniency than the ones who didn’t let their babies do nuthin’, actually gave our kids an extra step ahead.

      Like

  7. Ah. The times they are a changin. It never ceases to amaze me how we took it for granted that we did the things we did back then. In today’s world they would be considered totally reckless, yet we grew up that way. Perspective! I always kinda liked hearing the lonesome whistle blow in the night. Song lyrics. Good job Dale.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thank you, Jan. So very true. We did things today’s young parents would recoil in horror from (having been the first generation of children of helicopter parents). And why kids today are total wimps!
      Love the whistle if a train…

      Like

  8. It’s true we had more freedom and it’s a shame that’s been lost. I find trains really exciting and would have loved to hear that whistle in the night. I live near a Metro track and sometimes freight trains come by in the night – they don’t whistle but I love the sound of them going through.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Can relate to that one. LIved once a mere 25m from a train track, had dust from the wheels on the tracks on my window sills. Didn‘t mind (then) the noise but boy, was I glad that there was a fence, even if it meant we had to walk 500m to go through a tunnel to the other side (where a shop was!).

    Now we have a different dilemma: People coming to view our house sometimes complain about the ‚noise of the train‘ – we‘re living 3‘ on foot from a small train stop. So, no train is making much noise as they are either coming in to a stop or just starting off ….. but it‘s of no importance to those people that you‘re only 30-40‘ from the heart of Paris, they want total TRANQUILITY ….. Can‘t help them – for us it was paramount to have public transport within walking distance and you don‘t want to go to Paris by car!

    Liked by 1 person

      • Your (and my) hopes in God‘s (and a buyer‘s) ears….. Just sent another prospective buyer out. She LOVES the house, ADORES the garden – but it‘s a bit noisy….. ;(

        Liked by 1 person

        • Maybe she will think on it and realise that the noise is nothing to worry about… I am moving to a boulevard in June. At first I thought…then I thought… and now I know… 😉

          Liked by 1 person

          • Oh boy – first of all CONGRATS to you. This will be my next and future big worry after the selling of our house: Where will we live? What can we afford to rent? No more houses, and I have two difficult to fulfill ‘conditions: A flat with a garden patio (instead of a balcony) and it must be relatively tranquil. So no boulevard for us. Isn’t it great that we are all different?
            Apart from the garden (a very loose term, as it’s often just a few square meters, the space of the balconies above!) I absolutely and totally wish to have a dog – I had to forego that one wish for too long but in most rentals you are not allowed to have dogs. Cats maybe because or under the condition that you keep it inside, but dogs – rather not!!!!

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          • Thank you. Gotta start getting my packing organised!
            This one will be for a few years. Once the boys are gone, I will surely want smaller and less obligations.
            Good luck on finding your dream home that allows dogs!

            Liked by 1 person

          • Ha, back to you (again). The real estate agent called me already to tell me that the lady was (noise or no noise) VERY impressed, loved the house and surroundings….. She will visit another similar house tomorrow and maybe (!) will want to come back to our ‘barrack’ – Another family with 4 children is also very interested but why they came to look at the house in the first place I don’t know, as usually here in France parents want a bedroom for each child and ours has a large basement but ‘only’ 4 bedrooms in total and two very generous living/dining rooms…. In the end, it’s a personal choice and a question of their budget, the readiness to put in some effort to make a place ‘their’ place or just leave it…..

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