When I was a kid railroad tracks ran along a corridor through the neighborhoods in the valley we lived in. All the big freight companies used it. It always lent an air of excitement when a train came along, as it didn’t happen very often. After a while the trains stopped coming, and the once brightly polished rails became rusty and old-looking. But that way okay. Everyone used the tracks as a trail to walk along and ride their bikes along, away from the traffic and the smell of automobiles. It’s where Dad and I always took the dog for a walk.

I’m not sure when we first noticed them, but it was certainly on one of our dog-walking expeditions. Instead of walking with relative ease on the footpath that had evolved to the side of the tracks, we often walked on the tracks themselves, or balanced for a while on the rails. More fun. Happened to look down one day to see a nail pounded into the wooden tie for no apparent reason. And it had a number on its end. Strange.

Dad was curious about our find, and did some research. Evidently, when the ties were replaced, a tie tack was put in it somewhere with the year on it, so the railroad would know how long their ties were lasting.

Since the tracks were no longer in use, we decided to collect the tacks. Dad started carrying a claw-ended hammer with him when we went on walks, to use to pull the tacks out of the ties. We ended up with quite a little collection of them. Most of the ties in our area were last replaced in the 1930s and 1940s, some as long ago as the 1920s. Most of them bent a bit when Dad pulled them out (some bent when they were driven in). There’s a nice little collection of them at Mom’s house still, hanging over the door to the shed, Dad’s workshop, in chronological order. But when we were up there last weekend, and going through the shed and tools there (I take full advantage here of the Imperial We, as I did very little of the going through and sorting, and Dave did almost everything), we found an old cottage cheese container half full of bent and duplicate tie tacks. I didn’t realize it, but Dave brought it home. And he left it here in my office a few minutes ago when I was away from my desk. Predictably, this is what prompted my trip down memory lane.