EJ&E plans reveal childhood memories

I remember the first time my mother took me via passenger train from Muncie to visit my grandparents in Battle Ground, Ind., a rural town near Lafayette.

I was going on 3 years old. And according to my memory, the train let us off right in front of my grandparents' farm house.

It's fascinating how early childhood memories are revived. From that moment on, every time we were stopped by any passing train, my recollections of that experience were rerecorded.

Reviewing photographs reinforce memories much the same way.

Several years after that first train ride, I thought to ask my grandmother why the train didn't stop in front of her house anymore. That's when I learned that the train had never stopped there.

My grandfather had picked us up at the Lafayette depot and driven us to the farm.

Tracking memories

My folks still live in the house where I grew up, a distance of about four half-acre lots from railroad tracks. Back then, Muncie was an industrial hub of Indiana and railways crisscrossed the city to serve its many manufacturing plants. Everybody lived near the tracks.

Still today, at 2 a.m. freight trains stall and switch along those tracks. During my youth, whenever relatives visited, train coupling awakened them. I always slept through it.

And these days when my neighbors in the cul-de-sac across the street say they hear train locomotion overnight in Naperville, I sleep through it.

My childhood friends and I played mostly outside. We sometimes explored alongside the tracks where a swamp that froze for ice skating most winters was swimming with frogs and a gazillion tadpoles every spring.

Our schools graphically dramatized railroad safety at every grade level, so we knew never to take short cuts by walking on the tracks.

My friend Karen's yard backed up to a hedge of hawthorn trees that provided a buffer to the tracks. The thorny branches created a canopy nearly to the ground on every tree. One chilly fall day when I was 10, we burrowed through the branches, clearing space inside for "a fort" where we stashed books and blankets.

Fast forward to Saturday. While navigating the city's Web site (www.naperville.il.us) searching for safety concerns relating to CNR's proposed acquisition of the EJ&E, I stumbled upon the Naperville Fire Department Y-Fire Program.

I flashed back to a lifesaving lesson I'd learned under the cover of that hawthorn tree.

Our precocious play and natural curiosity inspired an idea to build a little bonfire inside our cozy fort.

Karen's mother smoked, so matches were readily available at her house; plus, she lived close. In no time, we were roasting marshmallows on an open fire.

Then the branches parted and Karen's imposing mother looked down on us. She wasn't happy. She recognized the book of matches as hers. With a quivering lip and a chin puckered like a walnut shell, I confessed that the bonfire had been my idea.

My future flashed in front of me with visions of never being allowed to play outside again.

After Mrs. Cranor finished reprimanding us, stressing that matches are not toys and that we could have been badly burned or worse, she said, "If you promise never to play with matches again, I won't tell your folks."

We both lived up to our promises.

In Naperville, the Y-Fire program can help youngsters when dangerous behavior such as unsupervised experimentation with fire is not stopped by someone as savvy as Mrs. Cranor. Intervention is essential.

Listening to pops of random fireworks since July 4, I've wondered if they were shot off by youth.

The city's Web site states, "Nationally, over 50 percent of all arson arrests are youths under the age of 18. By addressing your child's fire play early, you can take a positive step in ensuring that your child will not be included in those statistics."

Stay on track

My intention when I started this column was to raise awareness about Canadian National Railway's proposed acquisition of the EJ&E Railroad, but I obviously got sidetracked.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board will approve or deny the purchase, soon after it releases its final impact statement between Dec. 31 and Jan. 31.

This critical review period is a time to learn, attend public hearings and contact decision-makers with your solution.

Stephanie Penick writes about Naperville on Tuesdays in Neighbor. Contact her at spennydh@aol.com.