“Keep in touch”

—“You can do it,” the little voice says.
“Say hello to pretty *****. Don’t be scared.
She’ll probably like it.”
(Pretty ***** being head-honcho of my supermarket pharmacy in Honeoye Falls.)
“Gotta say hello to ***** before I leave,” I said.
(She’s also tiny.)
BOINK! She did it again.
She sprang from her workstation deep inside her pharmacy, and zoomed to the window so we could talk.
I’m not used to this readers. It’s the way I was brought up: “Pretty ***** will not wanna talk to you! You are DESPICABLE!”
“My son really likes that calendar,” she chirped. “He goes to bed with it every night.”
That’s my annual train-calendar. I gave one to *****, and she handed it over to her little boy.
“I had a thought,” I said, as she told me how thrilled her son was with that calendar.
“Uh-oh…….” she said.
“Go ahead, SAY IT,” the little voice says.
“Do I say this, or don’t I?” I think to myself.
HEM-HAW! Hesitation and whispering on my part.
“If your son likes trains so much, maybe we could chase trains sometime.”
“That’s a wonderful idea,” she bubbled.
“Are you sure?” I moaned.
“If we do it,” I said: “I want your husband along.”
“Oh don’t worry about him,” ***** said. “He’s so far out of it, he won’t even know the difference.”
At this point I think to myself: “What are you telling me *****? Are you happy? Is your husband as happy-to-see-ya as I am? ‘Happy-to-see-ya’ makes your subject happy-to-see-ya. It’s contagious!”
“‘DREAMIN’!” my critics bellow. “You think too much!”
“I’m not pursuing *****,” I counter.
“We’re just talking, and I discovered women love talking.”
“Well,” I say; “we could visit that railroad-museum in Rush, but it may not be open due to COVID-19.
“Been there many times,” ***** said.
Beyond that, that museum is not 40 mph,” I said. “No 5-10 mph dawdling for this kid! Got to be doin’ at least 40 to be any fun.
The CSX main goes through Rochester, and there is a location where I’ve watched trains there myself.
Trouble is I’m not savvy up there in Rochester. Altoona I know fairly well, but that’s 260 miles away.”
“Keep in touch,” ***** kept saying.

• My brother and I photograph trains down near Altoona PA, where the old Pennsylvania Railroad crossed Allegheny Mountain. The railroad is now Norfolk Southern. Every year I take 13 of our 89 bazilyun photographs to assemble into a calendar — I do it with Shutterfly. I give those calendars as Christmas presents.