Dad was talkative during the time I was with him today. He explained that he would like to ride on a railroad, so I called Bill S. to ask about the Tanana Valley Railroad. Bill said it would be running on Saturday. I relayed this to Dad, but asked him if he would prefer the Alaska Railroad. He said he thought not, that the Tanana Valley Railroad would be better.
I really don’t know how we are going to get Dad to Pioneer Park. We don’t have a car he will fit, that I know of. Van Tran, the Borough wheelchair bus system, does not come up to Chena Ridge, that I know of. If anyone has a solution, please call me at 488-2001.
At Pioneer Park, we hope we can get Dad–weather permitting or maybe who cares?–to the train in his wheelchair. Don’t know if we can get him in the passenger part–kind of narrow little doors if I recall–but at least it’s a thought right now.
Amazing and with a huge amount of volunteer work over the years, the Tanana Valley Railroad group has taken the little engine that I played on (in park position) in front of the Samson’s Hardware area many years ago. And then my kids played on it as it sat in a new place at Pioneer Park. Dad’s love for that train goes way back further than me, and he is a lifetime member of the group that has worked so hard on its restoration.
Dad talked about other things too, today. Dick came by for a nice long visit. Ron is helping with the homestead, and says Frank will be up later today to see Dad. Frank went to the same high school in New York as Dad (as did Alaska Supreme Court Justice Rabinowitz and others. Come on, drop some names!). Dad clarified for me this afternoon how LaGuardia and the high school of music and art were the same/different, and I believe it is that in Dad’s time (& Frank’s & Jay’s) it was The High School of Music and Art and has since changed a little and become LaGuardia.
At the homestead, there are several paintings around that Dad did when he was a kid. Mostly he painted trains, and loved perspective. His doodles of people and his comic strips are things I remember from later on, and I’m sure some of us have some wicked stuff from the legislative years. Perhaps it was in the 1980s that Dad did some clay sculpture, and a bust he did and gave to Max is sitting in our living room.
–Chena
Koponen Clan: Are you familiar with folk and labor singer Utah Phillips’s album on railroad songs, which he wrote himself. One of them’s entitled: “Daddy, What’s a Train?” Another: “Requiem for the Wabash Cannonball”. I may have the casette for it. I think Nililo wd enjoy it whether he’s heard it or not before. Utah himself is in bad shape. He’s about 80-81 with a terribly bad tick, lives in Grass Valley, CA and can’t perform anymore. He’s an old IWW, and we’re organizing several benfit concerts for him in the Bay Ara as he has little income and has a family to support. Medicare takes care of some of his med expenses but not all. Wonderful dude, I’ve know him for years. Love, Harry
Utah is eighty?! Good grief! Almost as old as Da!
Harry, I would love it if we could play Utah Phillips’ album on rr songs with Dad. You probably don’t know, but I love to dance in the living room, in the kitchen, all over at the house (Dad’s mother taught me the twist in the front room aka original homestead hosue aka where the sauna is, way back when. Clear as a bell, I see it in my mind’s eye.) So we can do the choo choo, cha cha, and I gotta tell you, that idol type show on who is gonna be a hot shot dancer: ain’t got nothing on the ol NK!
Dad and Mom, as the stories go, met dancing in Ohio. He’s at Wilberforce, she’s at Antioch. Dancing, he hurts his ankle (and gonna hurt it all his life, doesn’t know that yet), she puts a bandage around that poor delicate part. The rest is history and some kids.
Trains?! Jeez, Harry, Dad couldn’t stop. There are trains coming out all seams in the house and more. We 5 are fond of them, but I don’t know if any of us bonded with Lionel or a specific gauge more than any other. As time passes (whoo whoo, choo choo) we might recognize more of what we learned….let’s hope so. Behind the scenes, some of us swap stories of going on weekends to train meets in New England. Whoa. Too much thinking on what were such freakin great times….
–Chena
Trains? Abolish flying! I hope to be travlling to FinnFest by train. The Calif Zephyr to Chi, hang out in Chi for a couple of days, then take the train north to Twin Cities, hang out some more at the UMN archives, then by bus to Duluth. With my own gimpy knees I need to reserve a place on the lower level because that’s where the johns are and I hate climbing those narrow spiral steps every time the call of nature beckons. So I get to hang with the all the other old fogies and crips, but I had a great time last year coming back from Seattle that way. Lots of great converstaions and kidding around. H