Field Trip: Great Overland Station

  I have been putting this blog off for a while.  This is one that will bring on the tears (box of Kleenax is nearby as I write).  Back in October, Bubby and I took a buddy of his, Grandma and Shorty to the Great Overland Station in Topeka.  We'd been before, so it was low on my list but they had a special exhibit on firefighting in Topeka - well, that's all they had to say.  Actually, I almost put it off too long and missed it, but we made it the week before the exhibit closed.
  My Papa Mauzey (Grandma's dad) was a Topeka firefighter.  I am extremely proud of him.  He is my hero in so many ways.  He would be the first to tell you that he wasn't a hero because of his firefighting duties even though he saved lives.  I always thought different though, I like being contrary and I claim that comes partly from him.

My Papa

He was very opinionated (this may be an understatement).  He never let you doubt where he stood on an issue, and would even sometimes take a stance contrary to yours just for the sake of argument  - he loved a good debate ;)  That being said, when we started homeschooling the kids, he was one of our biggest supporters.  I always wondered about that because I had a stereotype in my head that his generation would be more status quo.  It might be that it was because they grew up in the time of one-room schoolhouses and education was much different than what it is today.  I didn't broach the subject, but now I wish I had. 

Me & my Papa, during a bicentennial parade, 1976

  Our relationship wasn't at it's peak though until after I got to be an adult.  I think we could relate to each other better.  We'd have long discussions about anything and everything.  I'd tell him all the new family history I was learning and he'd listen interested.  He loved hearing it, just no desire to seek it out himself. And he would engage me in conversations of anything new he had learned.
  And when Hubby and I had the two older kids and they got past the baby stage - oh, Papa adored them!  They had his heart and he theirs. 
  So, when we got to the Great Overland Station we were all excited to see some of Papa's firefighting stories fleshed out in pictures.

Bubby looking at the Methodist Home display

One of them was the United Methodist home fire.  This was one of Papa's first fires he fought.  It was pretty intense and one that made another newbie firefighter leave the force.
The artifacts from the Grace Cathedral fire were interesting....

Shorty was not very tolerant of the time being spent in the exhibit, so thankfully there was a hands on area downstairs which suited him just fine.

There was a model train set and even a real train too!

We spent most of our time at the model train

The kids stuff was fun for everyone, even cool grandparents!

Bottom line, trains never disappoint and anything that relates to family is always awesome! ;)