Morgen Um Sieben

There's a particular children's song I learned to sing... but I only know how to sing it in German. I know other children sing it and stuff, my preschoolers know how to sing it.. but I never learned it other than in German, and translating it directly to English isn't smooth.

Morning at seven, by the train station, stood all the pepper billies all in a line. Then comes the train driver and turns a little wheel. Hoop hoop! Shh! Shh! Then they are all gone.

It's the pepper billy sing. That's what it is. But I don't know it in English.

I lived up on the mountains when I was growing up. A few miles to the west was the train that'd run through the valley. You could watch it go by. When I was living away from home, I'd come back to visit on the train, and my family would watch me ride in from the big glass window facing that way.

High School Senior pics. ON A TRAIN.

Hooooo hoooo... you'd hear the train go by and it was beautiful. I loved it. I loved trains. I think my earliest memory has to do with trains. Can't think of an earlier memory. I was really little and I heard the train yelling as it ran down the tracks. The sun was peaking through my window and the train was yelling. It was still too early but I must have been making noises because my mom came in and told me to go to sleep but I couldn't because the trains were awake and so was I.

Hooo hooo... I rode the train for so long. I've spent maybe weeks on the train.

They started building apartments in Layton. Apartments right next to the train. Or maybe it was a hotel. It was something. But I wanted to live there. I liked walking down the platform in the morning at 5:30am and watching the Union Pacific screech past. It was loud. The wind whipped my face and tossed my hair. I'd stare at it and wonder how fast I'd have to run to jump on.

Sometimes I'd stop Joe and we'd point at the cars, one at a time, shouting "ONE TWO THREE FOUR" trying to see how many there were. Joe always liked to be one off, just to confuse me.

And now? Now we live in Provo. Guess where. Right by the train. I was so excited to walk to our bedroom window and watch the train glide by about a block away. Heard the "ding ding ding ding" it makes. I loved it.

And now at 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, for some reason, the Union Pacific parks itself right down in what is essentially our backyard and just screams. SCREAMS. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."

And now I wonder what in the world I was thinking.