Thomas The Tank Engine - How it changed my life [musicanima]

If I had to take a guess as to the song I heard most when I was young, it would have to be the Thomas the Tank Engine Theme Song. The reason, of course, is because I loved that show. I watched it incessantly. I loved trains. They just amazed me when I was young. And I had the great fortune to live only a couple hundred feet from a train track. When I would go out my front door and look down the street, there was this stone arched bridge that the trains would pass over. Just seeing that as a kid really opened my imagination. And then, of course, when I started watching Thomas the Tank Engine, my love of trains and my love of that show just grew exponentially. I want to reflect on this song not so much because the song in and of itself changed my life, but rather because of what this song represents for me. What it really represents is adventure – external adventure. That's why this song is really a perfect epilogue to Yellow Submarine. It's the opposite side of the same coin. Whereas Yellow Submarine is more about my internal adventurousness, – about expanding my internal imagination – what the Thomas the Tank Engine Theme Song represents is me being externally adventurous – going out into the world and seeing new places. The main thing that I think of whenever I hear the Thomas the Tank Engine Theme Song is my mom taking my brothers and I on what she called "Adventure Treks." When we were kids, we would go on them all the time and we loved them. My mom would come to my brothers and I and just say: "Alright boys get ready, we're going on an adventure trek!" And every time we'd respond the same way. We'd say: "Where are we going?" "Where are we going?" And she would never tell us. She would say what we needed to get dressed in and she would tell us what we needed to bring, but after that we would get in the car and we'd just drive, and the whole time our anticipation would just build and build until we finally got wherever we were going. It was such an incredible thing to experience as a kid. I am so thankful to my mom for taking us on these Adventure Treks. I got to see new places that I never knew existed – that I would have never dreamed existed. I got to meet new people. I mean, we went on so many of them. I can't recall them all, but we'd go to playgrounds, we'd go to museums, we'd go to other towns. She would take us all over the place and I have absolutely no doubt that I am who I am right now in large part because of going on these Adventure Treks. Now, one of my favorite places to go when I was a kid – and this is where it ties into Thomas the Tank Engine – is to a place called the Arcade and Attica Railroad. Arcade and Attica is about an hour south of Buffalo, and it is a legitimate, genuine old steam engine. My parents would take us there usually every fall and we'd just go on this couple hour ride through the countryside. And it was just magnificent to look out, to look out upon the world, look out on nature, while sitting on a train being adventurous. My favorite part about going to Arcade and Attica was, since this was a legitimate old steam engine, you could go out on – not the caboose – but this open car at the back and get all the grime and soot from the smokestack in your hair. Of course we as kids lived that. I'm sure my parent's didn't love it as much, but it was real, it was genuine, and it was so much fun – it's something I'll always remember. Now, one specific Adventure Trek that really meant more to me than any other was something that was completely spur of the moment. It was completely serendipitous. It was probably right around the time of my– I don't know – 7th or 8th birthday. My mom and I are driving around and we're driving near this train track that's pretty close to our house, and there's this train stopped right up top near the bridge. So my mom pulls over so we can look at this train because it's just magnificent to me. We get out of the car, we kind of walk up along the side a little bit, and we're getting closer and closer but staying well back because this train was stopped. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the window to the train opens and the conductor – the engineer – sticks his head out the window and says: "Hey kid, you like trains?" Well, of course I was flabbergasted and I was too shy to say anything. But thankfully my mom spoke up for me and she said: "He loves trains and his birthday's in a few days." Almost without missing a beat, the engineer said: "Hey, why don't you come aboard, I can show the controls?" Now I was floored and I'm sure my mom was a little reticent, but she trusted, and ultimately I went up and got up on this train and got to go in the front cabin, and got to see how the train was operated – all the buttons, all the controls. It was incredible. It was, by far, the best birthday present I have ever had in my life. And that's all because of my mom – all because she was so devoted to me and my brothers, and always wanted to take us on adventures – always wanted to take us out into the world and get us to experience things we had never experienced before, see new places we had never seen before, and meet new people who we had never met before. Thanks to my mom, I went on countless Adventure Treks when I was a kid. and because of that – also thanks to my mom – I've been going on Adventure Trek's ever since. That's really, to me, what the Thomas the Tank Engine Theme Song represents. It represents adventure. It represents travel. It represents going out into the world, and seeing new places and meeting new people, and forming new experiences, building new memories that you had never had before. I have so many good memories of these Adventure Treks, and I look forward to the rest of my life going on countless more. Thank you for sharing a few minutes with me and allowing me to share my love of Thomas the Tank Engine with you, and to share some of my experiences – some of the Adventure Treks I've gone on. What about you? Do you love trains? Do you love Thomas the Tank Engine? Do you have kids? Do they love Thomas the Tank Engine? But even more than that, what are some of the Adventure Treks you've gone on? What are some of the memories you've made or places you've seen that you couldn't believe existed? What are some of the adventures you have gone on? If you feel so compelled, in the comments below, please share some of your Adventures. [Epilogue] I'm going to talk about Thomas the Tank Engine... and a helicopter flies over. It's Harold! Yeah! [Laughter] Which one was your favorite? Toby. Toby. Yeah! And Harold Helicopter. Do you remember the song? Well sort of... [Sung] (Poorly) Said Harold Helicopter to our Percy: "You are slow." "The railway is out of date, and not much use you know." But Percy and his..... And they beat the helicopter on the old branch line! Nice. Yeah! [Laughter]