Tangible Things

I walked with my boy on the trail that once had rails of the Milwaukee Road's Monroe Branch when I realized there is more to leaving that meets the eye.  The boy and I came across some old railroads ties, stacked and off to the side.  He asked what they were for and I explained, the rails were affixed to the ties.  Then it dawned on me, this trail and the rails of the line that preceded it, are crucial to my being.  It is the Milwaukee Road that employed my Great-Grandfather.  It is the Monroe Branch that brought my Grandmother to Tolt from Wisconsin.  In Tolt she met my Grandfather. Without this line, my Great-Grandfather would not have had a job in Tolt to transfer too.  My Grandmother and Grandfather would not have met, my mother would still be in the aether, as well as I and my son.  I exist because of this line.  Knowing this, it is even harder to leave this place, it is to leave behind this history for myself and my family.  95 or so years ago this line brought a family that left their history in Wisconsin to move west,  it is a degree of solace to know that in the end that decision is what allows me to sit and type now.