November 1978

Snaps and crackles emanating from the fireplace combine with clicks and pops from the album that rotates round and round on the old console record player in our living room.

It’s getting on towards Christmas.  Well, okay… really it’s just the start of November and the Christmas tree won’t even be going up until after Thanksgiving. But as a kid, November was the start of winter, and winter meant snow, and snow meant Christmas.

So, yeah, it’s getting on towards Christmas. Snowflakes are falling beyond the picture window in a silent dance to Earth, and I’m listening to the new Carpenters Christmas Album, combing through the Sears Wish Book Catalog.  I flip past the housewares and lingerie sections to get to the good stuff: train sets… slot car tracks… Tonka trucks… Star Wars figures.

This was the year Santa was going to bring me a Tyco train set—the one with a diesel engine, a couple of brown boxcars, a long passenger car, and a red caboose. It was my dream to start building a monster railroad layout, and this little set was going to be the start to fulfilling that dream. 

It was going to be magnificent. Continue reading “Losing Nostalgia… And Finding It Again”