(Brian McNeill)
When I was seven years old
I sat on a train rolling east through the night
And my mother sang songs just to keep out the dark
Till we both fell asleep in the first morning light
And I thought on my grandfather's life as the carriages rolled
For all I knew of him were stories my mother had told
I was seven years old
And I waited in the station in the wind and the steam and the rain
And I can still smell the smoke and see the look in his eyes
And his hat and his suit and his cane
As he lifted me down from the train
When I was sixteen years old
I fought with my parents like a young man should
And when the fighting got too rough I'd walk with my grandfather
Down to the railway where the wine cellars stood
And he'd talk of the people he'd met and the places he'd seen
Just to show that he knew all the lines he was reading between
I was only sixteen
And when the signalman asked if I still set his watch by the train
He said that he trusted the Danube Express
More than many's the watch he could name
And we watched it roll over the plain
It took me too long to return
He was older and smaller and frailer than me
But when I looked in his eyes I could still see the smile
And I knew he was younger than I'd ever be
I sat there and told him the sum of my hopes and my fears
And he smiled and said laughter could always cure most of the tears
Of my thirty one years
And when I said that I'd take the train later that day for the west
He said he'd go with me, we'd chase all the girls
The dark ones were always the best
He remembered the way that they dressed
A few months after he died
We drove all night till the bad weather cleared
My fiddle beside me, my friends and my songs
On the eve of my birthday in the spring of the year
And later I called out his name as I lifted my glass
And a Michigan train whistle answered the call as it passed
It broke me at last
But I smiled as I struggled to hold back the tears from my eyes
For I knew it was easy to talk to my grandfather
Each time a big train went by
And there was really no reason to cry