Santa Train

A few years back, two elderly men decided to put together a Santa train for children on Signal Mountain. It's become a tradition up here. The Santa Train gets put up the weekend of Thanksgiving every year. It's the first thing you see when you reach the top of the mountain.

Let me just say now that I am a big jerk. I've been kind of rough on the Santa Train in the past. It drove me nuts because there were a few parts to the display that were totally out of scale. How are a couple of baby blocks bigger than a giraffe? I'm very picky about things like that.

This year, Charlie was old enough to go, so we had to take pictures. John was reluctant, because he is an art school grad after all, and had the same feelings of snobbery I had. When I got up close to the train and got to look at all of the amazing handiwork, I was really touched. These men put in so much time and craftmanship, that is really is impressive. There's a board on the side that lists dozens of donors that made the train possible. It's just a really neat thing that you can only get in a small town. It made me proud of my little hometown!

Oh, and one thing. You will notice some, er, rubble in the background. There is a background of painted pine trees behind the train. The night before, there was a terrible rainstorm, so some of the background is sort of collapsed. Just ignore it and look at the cute kid!