Working on the Railroad: Use Your Words

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using: railway ~ breaks ~ saws ~ bird ~ variety ~ platform 
They were submitted by Jenniy of Climaxed.

I bet you know where these words took me. Yup, to trains.

The boys loved trains when they were little. Firetrucks would catch their interest too while we were out doing our errands, but on the occasions when we happen to see a train? That was the best. If there was a safe place to pull off the road, I'd whip over to the side and stop, sometimes resulting in an angry driver flipping me the bird (sorry, had to use that word and it's not so easy to work into a post about trains). On those occasions, the big locomotives would speed past us with a whoosh, rocking my car. We'd sit there listening to the click clack, click clack of all the cars until the caboose passed. "I'm going to work for the railroad," my youngest would always say, inevitably resulting in my loudly singing "I've been working on the railroad," to those poor kids' dismay.  

We don't have any local commuter trains here, at least not anywhere near us, the railways all through this area are populated only by Union Pacific trains carrying freight. Sometimes we'd pass by a train going in the opposite direction always wave to the conductor. More often we'd be driving to the mall on a street that passed under the tracks. Every now and then, if we got really lucky, we'd be driving down the road where their preschool was, the road parallel to a section of tracks, when a train would come up beside us. I'm going to work for the railroad," my youngest would always say, inevitably resulting in my loudly singing "I've been working on the railroad," to those poor kids' dismay.  

In the summers we'd take breaks from the steaming heat of the Midwest and head to the beaches of the East Coast. I'm from the Boston area, where there's a local transit system called the T, with a variety of options for little train lovers. There are streetcars, which are more like a bus on rails. No platforms, just jump on from one of the stops on the road. We'd ride them with my sister and her kids, such a fun adventure for the kids (maybe not so much my sister's two kids, but definitely mine). You can also, though, take an actual commuter train that would make local stops, and every now and then we'd make a day of it. In fact, one of my favorite pictures of the 4 cousins is of them sitting together on a seat on one of those train rides. 

We'd ride for a while and then get off in another town where we could walk to a local park. The kids would play for a few hours, ride the swings, go down the slides and make each other dizzy on the seesaws. After juice boxes and cookies that we'd packed for the day out, they had the train ride home to look forward to.   

Raspberry Lemon Crunch Cookies

Back on the train, kids happy and tired and full of snacks, we'd ride, swaying in our seats, back to the station where my sister had left her car. "I'm going to work for the railroad," my youngest would always say, inevitably resulting in my loudly singing "I've been working on the railroad," to all four kids' dismay.  

These are all such fun memories, but time passes, kids get older, and dreams change. We don't pull over to watch trains go by any more, although I do often smile when I see one, remembering when we did. These days I have no little ones to embarrass with my loud refrains of "I've been working on the railroad."  

And that little boy, convinced he'd someday work for the railroad? He grew up and went off to college, majored in Computer Science and is currently working in Boulder Colorado as a Senior Applications Developer. 

Oh, and who does he work for? 

Union Pacific.

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

Wandering Web Designer
On the Border 
Climaxed 
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Raspberry Lemon Crunch Cookies

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Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
12 lemon sandwich cookies 
1/3 cup yellow, pink and/or red colored sugar
1 package sugar cookie mix
1/2 - 1 cup butter or butter substitute (amount recommended on package), room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp raspberry extract
1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.
*Crush the lemon sandwich cookies to small pieces (not crumbs).
*Place the colored onto a plate.
*Mix together the cookie mix, butter or substitute, egg, raspberry extract, freeze dried raspberries, and crushed cookies until it forms a dough.
*Roll the dough into approximately 3/4 inch balls. Flatten slightly, press one side into the colored sugar and place them onto the baking sheets, sugar side up.
*Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until the cookies just start to brown around the edges. Allow to sit on the baking sheets for 2 minutes before removing to cool completely.