"Just Because": October 2011

Below is what I wrote to a friend re: a Lionel train that is over half-a-century old--one that, as much as I'd love to keep it for myself--I really need to sell. Therefore, I'm also going to be posting this story on Madison County On Line Yard Sale at Facebook...

As for the old trains, I'm hoping that mine will bring in around $3000. Michelle is coming out to test it tomorrow afternoon to make sure that it runs.

If it's in good condition, I'll be able to realistically sell it for around that price.

The story behind the train is that I got it for either my birthday or Christmas when I was somewhere between three and five years old.

Of course, I couldn't play with it by myself at that age, but my mom and/or dad could set it up for me. One evening, it was just my dad and me, and I wanted to play with the train.

It was upstairs in my playroom, and my dad was watching a TV program. He told me that he'd come up to get it after the show was over (to set up in the living room), but I had other ideas.

My other ideas had to do with my getting the train downstairs by myself and having him to help me set it up during commercial breaks.

The train was in its box (where it was kept when not set up), so I went up to get it--and got it to the stairs to find out that I couldn't carry it down and hold onto the banister at the same time.

No problem! I just gave it a toss, and it landed at the bottom of the stairs.

At that point, Daddy decided to teach me a lesson about consequences, so he told me that, by not being patient, I had broken my train.

It was then put away.

I believe the plan was to let me mature for a couple of years and, then, "fix" it so I could play with it again more responsibly.

However, I never asked about the train, because I assumed that it was simply broken and had to be thrown away.

The train was forgotten about. Then, we moved, and it was packed away with other things and, years later, rediscovered.

By this time, I think that my folks and I all thought that it was broken but that it might be fixed when we had some money to spare to get it fixed.

At this point in time (October 4, 2011), I'm still not sure whether or not it's actually broken, but my goddaughter will be able to find out and do an evaluation of it. She said that, even if part of it turns out to be broken, the parts not affected by this "train wreck" could still fetch some good money.

We'll just have to wait and see...