My dad's old caboose chair

I remember when I was a kid going to work many times with my dad. He was a locomotive engineer for the Southern Pacific railroad. One time we were in the railroad yard and there were three old cabooses that were marked "dismantle." They were headed to the scrap yard. My dad walked through the cabooses and in one of them he found this old chair. He loaded it up in his pickup and we took it home.

Back in those days I had a big model railroad in my bedroom. Under the model railroad I had a mattress that I slept on. The chair ended up in this room. My dad and I would spend hours running trains with whomever was operating the trains sitting in this old chair. My mom made a seat cushion for it that has long since rotted away. All this time I have kept this chair.

After I moved out, and my dad died, I held onto the chair. Both my wives declared it an eyesore and it spent years relegated to various darkrooms I have had. Later I took it to work and it sat in my old office at San Jose State for years. Lately Susie let me bring it home and it is now in our family room.

Last weekend we put Madison's baby seat in it and we enjoyed a family dinner together. It really was special to me to have my first grand child there eating with us in my dad's old caboose chair.