Thomas and Friend

If you haven't been subjected ... er, I mean, if you haven't had the pleasure of watching Thomas and Friends, I can only assume you haven't had children or grandchildren around for a while. This popular series about the adventures of a train and his friends has been running since 1984, and it came to the States in 1989. The name has shifted around over the years as new characters have been introduced.

Anyway, the railway gift store has a HUGE Thomas selection, which makes it very popular with younger children and their dads. We have everything from complete Thomas wooden train layouts to Thomas dishes and Thomas puzzles. (So don't be surprised next time you get a gift from me if ...)

Last night we had pizza at our favorite little pizza place up on Christmas Mountain, and Tom picked up some tourist pamphlets and was looking through them. The waitress (wife of one of the brothers who owns the place) came over with our regular order and noticed the stuff about the Riverside & Great Northern. She got very excited and explained that Riley, her two-and-a-half year old who hangs out there and who seems to have decided we are just two more of his grandfathers, is a big Thomas fan.

I could see the wheels start turning in Tom's head. In fact, he had worn his engineer's cap with the flashing train button over just to entertain Riley.

Riley has taken to visiting us when we are there, usually demanding a small sliver of pizza as his share of the take. At one point, he went to a neighboring table and took the small fire chief hats the people had taken -- no doubt for grandchildren of their own -- and brought them over to us. (The name of the place is Firehouse Pizza.) The folks at that table look startled and I think probably thought we should discipline our grandson. Tom went over to return the hat and explain that Riley owns the place and only let us eat there if we shared some of our food. They smiled, but I suspect they did wonder what that was all about.

At any rate, Riley and Co. plan to visit later in the summer and ride the train. If Tom is around, I am sure he will be rewarded with a cap or something as a souvenir.