Of trains and locomotives

I love Chris-massy type cartoons and movies, because there'd always be snow. And battery operated train toys as Christmas presents.

I watched the "Polar Express" just the other day. It was a story about how a boy who didn't believe in Santa Claus had his faith strengthened after taking the Polar Express, a train that was bound for North Pole. But what really caught my attention was one of the last few scenes, when he was awakened on the morning of Christmas Day by his sister, to find the living room strewn with presents, including a battery operated train running around the Christmas tree.

That was one lovely train, even though it was computer generated. Still, I'm sure such toys exist in reality because I have seen it in one movie or another, just that I didn't exactly pay close attention to it.

I think it'd be nice if a children's room can have the railway track running on a little shelf nailed to the wall all around the room, so once in a while, you can set the train in motion and just watch it go in circles. I'm not talking about those wooden or plasticky-looking kiddish trains. Not even those modern bullet train types. I'm talking about antique locomotives with fake smoke, bells and the "chugging" sound. Oh, and mine would run on solar energy.

I don't know what's the point in that toy, but for me, it creates a mood and serves as an ornament more than anything educational. Somehow, such toys doesn't seem to fit into our culture. Maybe because we don't really see such trains in our country. Railway tracks yes, but steam locomotives, hardly.

What's with my fascination with kids stuff like dolls, musical carousels, books and cartoons?

Sigh.

I may think, talk, behave like someone beyond my age, but it just occurred to me that maybe I'm just a kid at heart.

I want to have my fun, I want to do silly things and get away with it. Perhaps I'm finding an outlet to make me forget the pains of being an adult, of what's it like when people are less forgiving for the things you did, because one thing about kids, they never judge.

Maybe I'll start a pre-school for children, and make sure all my teachers speak proper English and Mandarin to them. Hell, I might even throw in French, Italian, Japanese lessons if budget and class size allows.

Sure they may be a pain sometimes, but if you start to cultivate good manners and social etiquette from young, it'd have a long-running effect.

Like the train that goes round and round and never stops.