Tag Archives: railroad

Cinco de Mayo

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ChrisCincodeMayo

There was an article on one of the news outfits on the Internet, CNN or MSNBC I don’t remember which, asking “Why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo”. I was surprised by this as the answer has always been “because it’s Chris’s birthday.” This is so simple a problem to answer I couldn’t believe it warranted an entire article on a national news service, all they had to do was give me a call and I could have told them saving a lot of angst on their part.

As one of Chris’s parents I was always mildly surprised that an entire country chose to celebrate Chris’s birthday. I  noticed that shortly after he was born Mexico began celebrating Chris’s birthday. I was a little surprised that they chose to call it Cinco de Mayo instead of Chris’s Birthday Day, but then I thought that his being born was so great that celebrating the day was an even neater way to celebrate it rather than calling it Chris’s Birthday day. I realize he is a special person but a whole country stopping in their tracks, not to mention other folks around the world joining in to celebrate his birthday for an entire day, well you have to admit, that is pretty cool.

 It shouldn’t be that unusual though, Chris always has been a special person doing exceptional things even as a young person. Here he is shown after a hard day working on the railroad. He was instrumental in completing the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico railway, a rail line known for its dangerous tunnels and high trestles that span 1000′ deep ravines. That was an amazing feat for someone as young as Chris, but was it enough to get an entire nation to celebrate his birthday. We think so. When we look back at those days now and ask Chris what he thought about it, all he can say is “Boy o Boy O Boy that was some crazy stuff” in his usual modest way.

So there you have it. We celebrate Cinco de Mayo day because it is Chris’s birthday. That’s it. Short and sweet. Happy Birthday son. I love you.

Bones of the Past

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_DSC1238-Editclick to enlarge

When you record your journey through life with the lens of a camera you tend to see things a little differently than those who do not. Your perspective narrows or widens, zooms in for detail that others pass over, and sees the patina that the passage of time imposes on our surroundings. The moment becomes a scene frozen and captured along the path we travel. For many of us who photograph, this process is not a deliberate act where we reason it all out beforehand but a reaction to what passes before us. The light and dark of sun and shadow literally slip by us in a blur of motion that is the continuous movie playing constantly in our lives. For those of us that document this passage there is a need to stop it, to record it because the image you are seeing at that moment is too beautiful to allow it to disappear and there is too much to see for our memories to hold it forever. Unless we find a way to preserve the special moments we see there is a loss and that loss is unacceptable to me.

This was never made more real for me than while riding the Narrow Gauge train between Durango and Silverton, Colorado where we slowly passed a spur siding where old, out of use railroad cars were parked. It seemed as if they were waiting for time to complete their transformation from needed to not. As that thought was forming it became apparent to me that image, that feeling, was already receding from my view as the train moved us forward and would soon be gone forever and I quickly, reflexively, grabbed the shot. The entire episode, the viewing, the recognition, the reaction, all happening at the speed of a slowly moving train would have been out of my mind as soon as the next interesting thing entered my view. But because I feel the need to save those moments and was able to record that view I am transported back to that time whenever I look at this image. There is also the added benefit that when others see the picture they get to share in the experience as well. All in all it makes this job I do worthwhile.