Gone but not forgotten...

Dear Diary,

Feeling very nostalgic this morning after yesterday's post.  And, after all, it is it "Scan it Sunday"!  This is the old bridge over the Boston and Maine RR line.  It was a very short walk from the house I grew up in.

My grandmother use to walk me down to the bridge late in the afternoon so I could see the train come by.  It stopped to let off passengers.  There used to be a little depot but it had burned down long before.  Our neighbor would take the train to Boston to go to work.  I so wanted to ride that train but my father was married to his automobile and we never took it.  I guess that's why I ride a train now whenever I can.  I love the slow chug, chug chugging.

I would stand on my tiptoes to wave to the conductor.  Many, many years later I met the man and he recalled the little girl waving to him!  The bridge is long gone along with the tracks.  The area was filled in and a new concrete bridge replaced the old wooden one.  Progress I'm sure they'd say but I'm glad I still have this photograph of it. 

As kids, we would scramble up the banks under it and wait for a train to rumble by.  A rite of passage and terrifying.  Probably a bit fool hearty as well but it was a way to prove our courage.  In those faraway days we thought ourselves invincible but I suppose all children do.  Now, we all know better...