In 1982 my late husband had a dream come true. Well, almost. Ever since his childhood, when he had seen a caboose set up on a bank and used as a cabin, he wanted his own caboose in his yard. When that proved extremely difficult and mostly extremely expensive, he had another idea. How 'bout a boxcar?!

We had purchased the farm in 1977 and in five years we had put up our share of out buildings; little sheds, a chicken coop and a pretty stable red steel barn/garage. And there right in the foreground of that red building would be the ideal spot for a dream storage shed; Enter the Boxcar!!

1982:  It was a lengthy process to secure one but finally the day arrived that it was left on a siding in an itty bitty town just a few short miles from the house. And there it sat! For two long months he tried to line up someone to bring it home; so we visited it regularly and climbed around in it; and let our three old go up the ladder and onto the roof and other scary things that I wasn't crazy about. But the love and affection that he and now our son, had for this Boxcar was pretty contagious.

Eventually we found the guy!! The wheels were removed and here came the Boxcar down the highway at 2 mile an hour. There was a wrecker lined up to be at the house and eventually we pulled into the sloping driveway. The Boxcar leaned! There was collective breath holding.

As you can see by the above pictures the flat spot goal could only be met by getting up a gently rolling hillside. Another wrecker was called to the task. This is not an exaggeration: it took eight (8) hours of inching forward and backward up through our yard from the driveway (where most of these pictures were taken from)  to reach it's final resting spot. The wreckers had hooked to opposing corners, and continued to hold tight; even though they themselves leaned at times too.

In the beginning we had plans to paint it up special or write Toy Box on it...but maturity won out and my mom helped us hide it with trees; except for the three big pines at the far end. We ordered little sprigs when the County Extension Office offered them and took three tiny ones and spaced them "just so" so there would be a tree for the three of us! And I must confess seeing the trees cut down hurt even more than seeing the demise of his Boxcar.

It was time; it had to go. Nothing had been placed in it for storage since he passed away in 2006 and my family was concerned that when something does finally take me out of this world that no one would buy the place with a rotting Boxcar in the yard. I agreed.

There is a bit more to the story. My son and his wife have donated the money from the scrap to their church to assist in buying a bus for the Sunday School route. Evidently the one they use has seen better days. And trust me on this...my husband would love that his Boxcar helped someone get a New Bus!!