Memories Make Sure Disappearing Isn't Forever

​I was driving home from southwest Virginia yesterday. I looked over to my left and saw a beautiful scene. A train rolling along the tracks against the backdrop of the mountains. And then, a most unexpected surprise.

A caboose.

Whatever happened to the caboose, I thought?

It's amazing how ever present something can feel, only to be caught off guard many decades later by its disappearance.

I remember being a young kid playing in my great aunt's back yard. The yard backed up against a train track. I remember running to the edge of that track every time I heard a train coming, my excitement driven entirely by my desire to see the caboose. Because there always was one.

Sometimes—not always—a conductor or crew member would wave out a window or even step out on the back deck of the caboose to return one. There was something magical about it. I'm sure in those moments I dreamed of being a train conductor or crew member one day, if only to ride in one of those cabooses.

Of course, in the 1980s, the railroads began phasing out the caboose and replacing it with electronic devices that were placed on the last car to help track and manage potential mechanical issues. I'm sure today the technology has made even those devices extinct.

That caboose moment yesterday was a giant reminder that change is slow—but then change is all of a sudden. I felt the all of a sudden watching that caboose cling to the back of the train like the train's long lost friend.

I watched it disappear like it was MY long lost friend.

I couldn't help but wonder as I drove on: what our world today is a future long lost friend. What do I treasure today that will slowly change until it one day feels gone all of a sudden?

Because we never know when today's wave is tomorrow's relic.

Would we would treasure the future relics more if we did??

I don't know.

It's hard for me to imagine being any more excited than I was as that child waiting patiently (and not so patiently) for the last car on the train—my wave locked and loaded. And there is also this, if the caboose had indeed lasted forever, I'm sure my brief encounter with one yesterday wouldn't have felt nearly as beautiful.

We have memories for many reasons, I guess. Maybe one of them is to remind us that things disappear, but they are never truly gone.

It was good seeing you yesterday, Caboose. I've missed you my friend. I hope our paths will cross again soon.