Another Railroad Days bites the dust

It would be irresponsible to have a Galesburg-oriented blog and not at least mention Railroad Days, which once again just came and went. I love Railroad Days; I love Galesburg. But I know very little about either one, actually. Enough about Galesburg to do this blog. Enough about Railroad Days to be glad to see them again.

This year it rained and all I could think of was, it's raining on our parade. Kind of dampened everyone's spirits and at the same time kept a lot of kids home who could have been at the top of the ferris wheel. I have had a lot of personal issues lately and for that reason found myself on Mulberry Street a lot and I could therefore drive right past the Railroad Museum and the train station. And I was glad that there were people at the heart of it all, checking out railroad history and walking around the old railroad cars parked there.

I drive by Judy's a lot because I live in her neighborhood, on her block actually, and I always honk and wave when I see her. This weekend I saw her, honked and waved, and she never even looked up. She was too busy. Some other diners caught me and smiled but the light turned green and I had to keep going down Fremont Street. I consider Judy to be the person who brings the most tourists to Galesburg: fresh people, from far away, come to see Galesburg and especially Judy's. She's a tourist attraction. The place was packed.

I have a couple of daughters who wanted to do the fair so I took them down to the bank where one cashed in some money so they could go. Picked them up an hour or two later and they got into the car screaming at each other. They had had some kind of fight and it didn't get better; it got worse. All past the Innkeeper's, through downtown, and back across by the Railroad Museum they were screaming so loud I couldn't hear myself think. This was my Railroad Days. There will never be another one like it.

Let me record that it happened. It looked like the model train setup out on Fremont had a nice full parking lot. People got out there. People came to Galesburg. Biggest drinking weekend in western Illinois, I told my daughter's boyfriend. I don't know if he liked that or not. It was somewhat of a novelty to him to get out of Peoria, have a living room, and stay out of the crowds. In some ways we live our separate lives, taking care of many children, some of whom have special needs. The world goes on. People come to town, then they go back. Now comes the Fourth.