Skip to main content

Featured

Another Gem from the Christmas Memory Box

Christmas 1990 was unlike any other I had celebrated. It was different because I was engaged to be married to The Hubs, a miraculous development that occurred right around Thanksgiving that year. But it was also really special for another reason... I was living in Brooklyn, New York, at the time, finishing out my third year with a dance company while also working part-time to make ends meet. Jim was then living in Macomb, Illinois, where he was finishing his master's degree. We didn't like being apart, but it was a necessary evil only made bearable by knowing that we'd be married in 1991. We hoped the time would move quickly. Fortunately, my br illiant  fiancé wa s really good at finding odd gigs as a lighting or set designer that could bring him to New York so we could spend time together, and this holiday was no different. So, he was able to come to Brooklyn to stay for a few weeks to work in between semesters at university and see me. Each year when I lived away from hom...

GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - Seeing Double

James, dwarfed by a Union Pacific engine.


 
James' grandpa, James Casey, Sr. enjoys his time on a train.

GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021

Seeing Double -  January 25th entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.  

by Nancy Gilbride Casey


What is it about little boys and trains? Our son James was enamored of trains from the day he first noticed them as a tiny little guy. 

Whenever we saw one, he would want me to slow down the car so we could watch it, or roll the car windows down so that he could hear the train whistle. He collected Thomas the Tank Engine cars and track. I read him Thomas the Tank Engine books, and we watched the TV show too. With every library trip we took, we looked for any book with a train theme. I'm sure there was a train-themed birthday party at some point too.

James also loved a trip to the train museum with his Papa (James D. Casey, Sr.), or visiting other train exhibits in local small towns. Imagine his thrill when we took a ride on the actual Thomas the Train one year in Grapevine, Texas!

The love of trains must run in the family line: proven by this wonderful black and white photograph of James' Papa, standing on a train stairs when he was a little man. It wonderful to see shared interests passed through generations.


NEXT UP: Wartime Letter III

Comments