Trains

I never thought that I would actually live under a bridge, but I do. Well, almost under a bridge…235 passes right by out house. When we first looked at this house we were both like, whoa - the interstate is *right* there. But once inside the house you can't really hear it; all you hear is a soft, low rumble of passers by.

I grew up in small town Wisconsin, the closest interstate was like 30 miles away. We traveled country roads, and we listened to the sounds our neighbors made in the evenings as we went to bed. Our back yard went clear up to the train tracks that went through town and I spent a lot of time on those tracks. I didn't realize it then (of course not, I was a kid) but what I liked most was the sounds of the train. It was what I knew and it was comforting and reassuring because it was a sound I associated with home.

When I was 10, we had to move into town. I know if mom could have been able to make it work we wouldn't have had to move, but Dad got sick and we had to downsize. I had to leave my little town of 40 people and move into the city of almost 2,000. I didn't like it and I know I was a snot about it. But the one constant was the train tracks. The train didn't run through our back yard anymore, but it was just down the street and near the edge of town so I could still hear it. I remember laying in bed listening to it thinking, its almost like home.

Once I made the move to Des Moines to go to college, I never really thought much about the sounds of the train. At the time, I was too concerned with the sounds of college :) After many moves and many apartments, we bought our first home. Ironically, its just about 10 blocks straight west of this house. Because of the curve in the interstate that house wasn't too close to it and we couldn't really hear anything other than the occasional car driving down our street. But when we bought the duplex over in Union Park, the first thing I noticed was the train. I could hear the sounds of the train that ran near downtown. We weren't particularly close to it or anything, the sounds just carried. Those nights that we had the windows open and I could hear the trains moving through town were the most relaxing.

I wish this house were nearer to some tracks or that the train sounds carried to here. But they don't and that's okay, I have the gentle whoosh of traffic to work with. It doesn't sound like a train, but it reminds me of a train and that's enough to make it home.