Day 3, Tuesday, May 15, 2012-Continued...

Another restful night at my brother's home in Johnson, Arkansas We drove around with my brother acting as a tour guide. You need to understand that since 1955 I have not been back to North West Arkansas where I was born and raised except for annual short visits. With a couple of 3 year intervals of military service added in there needless to say the area has changed so much to be unrecognizable to me. New streets, new street names and in general a hugh explosion of residential areas and shopping areas which were previously farm land or just empty fields and a new bypass which goes around all of our towns.  For example the 125 acre farm where I spent my early years was sold in tact by my father when we moved to Johnson. That farm for the most part has been developed as a residential area with dozens of homes, condos etc. My old house is still standing and is occupied but has been modified. The large barn where I spent hours milking cows, tending to horses, pigs, mucking stalls and moving hay out for the animals to eat has just about fallen down. That is typical of the changes that have taken place.

Homestead barn

As a child I was always into model airplanes, trucks and trains. When I got old enough to have a little money of my own I spent it on model airplanes that were powered by rubber bands which I launched out of the big door on the second floor of the barn. This usually resulted in a decent flight although sometimes the plane landed on the barn roof and I had to wait for a strong wind to blow it off. Becoming older I graduated to models which were powered by engines which used a fuel mixture. At one time I had 4 different sized engines that varied in size from very small to large. The love of trains led me to buying a Lionel 027 gauge electric train which me and brother James spent hours setting up a platform upon which to build our rail lines over which to operate our train.

With that background fast forward 40 or 50 years and I often wondered what ever happened to that train set. Also, when I quit flying model airplanes I placed these engines in a large can filled with mineral oil and sealed them securely. You see by this time Grandpa Bill had grown up fallen in love and had kids of his own. Actually the truth is the girl I was chasing slowed down enough for me to catch her. It did not take long for him to figure out that model airplanes and a fast growing family did not help the budget very much and in fact were not compatible. Thus the engines received a permanent mineral oil bath. Again, I often wondered just out of curiosity what became of them. Every few years I would ask James if he had any idea what happened to them. He didn't know. After Mom & Dad died we sold that house and James moved a lot of boxes of " stuff " from the property. This included several boxes that had been stored in the old storm cellar which often flooded. If items were stored on the floor they would be under water and totally ruined. If stored on the shelving they were only slightly damaged by moisture. When his grandson Landon was born and got a few years old James started thinking about the old train set and how he might set it up for Landon. Upon looking through all the stuff he had moved from Dad's house to his residence guess what. He found the train set and the model airplane engines. Now he has converted an upstairs bedroom to a model train layout which seems to be growing in complexity and design. I must admit I did not help the growth problem because I gave him my big O gauge Christmas train. It is many times larger and heavier than the O27 gauge train and its rails are much larger. He and Landon will have great fun setting all this up and running it. That is when Grandpa James lets Landon touch it or get his hands on the controls. Landon thinks it is great fun to hit the curves to fast and have the train jump off the track. Landon is much to young to understand the damage that can happen to the train from such accidents.

We checked the airplane engines and they were as good as the day they were placed in the oil  and the can sealed. We resealed the can. I have no use for them since I do not plan to build anymore airplanes.