Riding the Rails

As a child, I was quite familiar with trains. I grew up with The Little Engine That Could, had the book and the record. The record was my favorite. It included a B-side story, The Submarine Streetcar, plus 2 songs; Casey Jones and John Henry (which, in case you don't know, Casey Jones was a real American hero. John Henry was a legend; not an actual specific person. But those are other stories!) I actually listened to the record so much I memorized every word of both stories, and could recite them by heart!



The story of The Submarine Streetcar is really a rather bizarre story about a trolley that, one day, reached the end of the line and kept going...off a cliff, into the ocean, where it has a quirky under-the-sea adventure rolling along on the ocean's floor!
   It was a cool and spooky!

Trains were still quite popular when I was a child. They were dangerous and glorious and fascinating. In my early childhood I lived near Puget Sound. At night I could hear the fog horn, if it was foggy, also the ferry horn, and trains! On calm clear nights I could hear the rhythm of its wheels. The whistle was a mysterious, romantic sound.

  My parents used to take us kids to ride an old locomotive at Snoqualmie Falls. We'd also go to Seattle and ride around on the streetcar.

  My parents also took us to the beach at Picnic Point Park in north Lynnwood. I loved that park. When I was really small, we had to cross the railroad tracks to get to the beach. I was knee-high to a grasshopper and I remember having trouble stepping over the rails. Dad would hold my hand and help me. Sometimes he put me on his shoulders. 
Sometimes while I was on the beach a train would pass by. If you waved at the red caboose, he would blast his horn in greeting.
   As a child I was fully aware of the dangers of cars and trains, so I knew what could happen if I wasn't careful. 
  The only part I didn't like about Picnic Point was having to cross the railroad tracks. My parents didn't like it, either.
  One day a two year old boy on a field trip with his daycare at Picnic Point was struck and killed on the tracks. So they built an overpass over the train tracks for pedestrians to get to the beach safely, and dedicated it in the little boy's memory.

Recently I was reading about the building of the American railroad across the nation. Building the railroad took lots of manpower and horsepower. It was hard, hot, dirty work. The men and teams worked like clockwork as they dug the railroad bed. There were no power tools, no tractors. They used horses with a plough and a scraper. Each  man had a job to do. They couldn't move too fast or too slow. While they worked, they sang.
   A railroad had to be as level as possible. Where the ground was low, they made it higher. Where it was high, they had to cut through the earth to make the grade level. It seemed like a lot of work, but it saved a lot more work and money (the trains burned more coal having to go uphill) by far.
    Just like Rome, railroads were not built in a day, but neither is anything else worth having. Take life one day and one step at a time. 

  Making the railroads level makes me think: 

"Listen! It's the voice of someone shouting, 

"Clear the way through the 

wilderness for the LORD! 

Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! 

Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills.

 Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places." 

(Isaiah 40:3a-4 NLT)

So let us enjoy this journey called life. Let us choose to work hard, be honest, choose the right path, and stop looking for some magical quick-fix. Let us persevere, and sing a little song along the way as we to drive dull care away!

The way of the righteous is smooth; O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level. Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O LORD, We have waited for You eagerly; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.

(Isaiah 26:7-8 NASB)

Movie Night: Duel

      On this Movie Night segment I will be discussing my favorite movies. I will start with the 1971 made-for-TV must-see movie Duel, starring Dennis Weaver, an old cowboy actor (from McCloud, Gunsmoke, etc.) It was based on Richard Matheson's story of the same name. (Matheson also wrote quite a few episodes for the Twilight Zone series). This film was Steven Spielberg's debut, and his claim to fame!

     I first saw this movie in 1987 or '88 when I was only 11. I think I came across it because I left the TV on while doing homework or something. Next thing I know this movie has my attention. At first I thought it was one of those comedy movies. The main character, David Mann (Dennis Weaver), seemed like an engaging character so I thought it seemed like an interesting movie so I started watching it, then the truck driver shows up and wow! I was captivated. This is my kind of movie. Basically the whole movie is one big car-chase. 


 I don't usually care for "upsetting", intense movies, where there's lots of violence; they are exciting yet a little too much drama, however this movie is very well balanced and realistic. It might be kind of scary for young children, but otherwise is appropriate. 
  
The main character, David Mann is played by Dennis Weaver. The writer chose the name David for King David, referring to David and the Giant (the giant being the big tanker that attempts  to wipe him off the face of the earth.) The surname "Mann" refers to "Man vs. Machine".

   Imagine that you're traveling through the desolate California desert on a business trip and suddenly there is this truck-driver endangering your life. Then imagine trying to get help only to have NOBODY believe you. It is a dog-eat-dog world and you are left to your own methods to survive.
    I think the truck is symbolic to the progressive nature of anger and how it turns to rage if you continue to harbor it. Sooner or later it will destroy you.

Trivia: 
~ In the phone-booth scene at Sally's Snakerama where David Mann is trying to call for help, you can see 21-year-old Steven Spielberg in the reflection on the glass, standing there with a clipboard.
~ They used two Peterbilt 281 trucks and three Plymouth Valiants to complete the film. The first Peterbilt and Valiant were destroyed in the first version of the movie on U.S. TV and they decided to expend it for the international market, so they purchased another truck and car. If you look closely at some scenes, such as the part with the train, you will notice some subtle differences in the car and truck. The first truck did not have mud flaps whereas the second one did.
~ Spielberg says that all the license plates on the truck's bumper are to represent a serial killer who had killed in all those different states.
~ Spielberg wanted David's car to be red, so that it would stand out against the desert background.
~ In the service station scene, at the part where the attendant is spraying down David's windshield, look closely and you will see in the reflection of the windshield a hand giving the cue to "go".
~ In the cafe scene, where David is walking out of the bathroom through the lounge towards the eating area, you can see the shadow of the cameraman following him.
~ The psycho truck-driver was played by Cary Loftin, a stunt man. He looks like somebody's grandpa, which is scary. I think that goes to show that you can't always trust the obvious (even though he was just acting out the character). This is true in real life, though.
~ During the chase, David spots a black-and-white car resembling a squad car pulled off to the side of the road. David skids off the road beside it, only to realize that the car says "Grebleips Pest Control" on the side of it. ("Grebleips" is "Spielberg" spelled backwards).
~ In the final scene, where the truck goes through a gate, it accidentally hits and destroys one of the cameras.

~ A man bought the surviving Peterbilt truck from the movie off of eBay. He even purchased a Plymouth Valiant to put on display side by side at car shows.
~ The elderly couple David encounters, played by Amy Douglass and Alexander Lockwood, also appear together in another Steven Spielberg film, Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977). A similar couple acts out the same ordeal in Back to the Future (1985).

SPOILER ALERT: DON'T LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING UNLESS YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET; I DON'T WANT TO RUIN IT FOR YOU!

Mann vs. Machine: My favorite part. The truck plows into the car, the car busts into flames. There is so much smoke and flames, the driver cannot see, loses control and plunges over a cliff! The truck had what was called a "dead man's clutch", a piece of machinery designed to keep the truck traveling in a straight line. Stunt man Loftin bails out at the last minute. Notice the open driver's door; a mechanism designed to close the door after he jumped out failed.

Total destruction.

The Book Nook: The Incredible Journey

I first saw this movie on Disney when I was about nine. Recently, over 20 years later, I was in Half Price Books and spotted the book so I bought it. I was intending to give it to my 10-year-old niece, but then I started reading it. I had tears in my eyes. It was so inspiring.
 
 It is about a two dogs and their best friend, a Siamese cat, who get separated from their owners and make a 300-mile trek across the Canadian wilderness in search of them.

This book is very symbolic of the Christian walk--through the wilderness, into the "Promised Land". We all need each other--nobody is an island. We cannot go it alone. Like the animals in this book. They stay together and help each other all along the way. You can learn so much from this book!

A Music Moment: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

The "Music Moment" segment will feature songs that really hit my heart. One of the latest songs that touched me was  I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. The version I heard was off of Crystal Lewis's Christmas album, Home For the Holidays. The composer of Crystal's album (who plays the piano on the songs) is John Andrew Schreiner, a very talented musician who has been described as the "Elton John of Christian Music". 

 I love discovering new music. I did research on that Christmas carol and found it was from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1863.
  Longfellow wrote the song to express his despair of hearing Christmas bells, that "hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men". The carol ends with the bells carrying renewed hope for peace among men.

During the American Civil War, Longfellow's oldest son joined the Union cause as a soldier against his father's wishes. After becoming a lieutenant, Longfellow's son was severely wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church in Virginia during the Mine Run Campaign. 
  On top of that tragedy, Longfellow had also lost two wives; the first died of an illness following a miscarriage, and the second died after being severely burned while trying to melt sealing wax. 

I think this song is one of the most beautiful I have ever heard. It really shows you how beauty can come from ashes, how you can triumph over tragedy. 

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.
~ Isaiah 61:3 (NLT)

Here are the lyrics to Longfellow's beautiful song:

(Words by Henry W. Longfellow, music by A. Herbert Brewer)

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

The Book Nook: Honestly, Katie John!

  Periodically on my blog I will be featuring a segment called "The Book Nook", where I will be discussing certain books (fiction and non-fiction) that I love from now to way back in my childhood. I was an avid reader and still remember the joy and wonder of the world of books!

I'll start with a novel called Honestly, Katie John! by Mary Calhoun. I first read this book when I was 9 going in 4th grade. In summer 1985 I was with my family on vacation on the Washinton State Coast staying in a cabin in Grays Harbor area, and Mom would go garage sale-ing during the day. She bought this book for 10c and I knew I was going to like it. The inside title page showed Katie on her bike and she reminded me of Beverly Cleary's Ellen Tebbits. I fell in love with Katie that summer day.

    The book is so good and Katie is so much like me. I found the part where she and Edwin find the old abandoned farmhouse out at Wildcat Glen VERY VERY interesting. I just wish Katie John would have asked around to find out the truth about the family that once lived there and that they explained it in the story. EVERYONE, READ KATIE JOHN! Mary should continue this series. It is good and I'm sure a lot of people agree! 

     It is about the joys and pains of growing up (which I am no stranger to) and soul-searching, trying to "find" yourself. I found a kindred spirit in Katie.
   I re-read this book when I was 18 and a senior in high school and it really touched me again when I wasn't feeling like a happy camper in life. I could identify with Katie even more as a teen and pre-teen.

This book is the third in a series about Katie John. The first two books were wonderful, too, however I have to say I like this one best!