[PRCo] Friends

[Fred Schneider]

You have heard me say more than once that this mailing list has  
evolved into a group of friends who happen to be interested in  
Pittsburgh Railways and once in a while we get off on other  
tangents.   It's nice to talk about Pittsburgh because we all have a  
tie to western Pennsylvania.   I, for one, feel you can move the body  
out of that area but you can never move the area out of the body.    
But the friendships are even more important.   You have to live in  
the frigidity of the eastern states to understand just how friendly  
Pittsburgh is.

Friends help other friends, don't they?  I've be thinking for 24  
hours where whether a public or private statement of appreciation to  
one of our group was appropriate.    I came to the conclusion, oh,  
what the hell.   You can all read this.

Our leader, Derrick Brashear is cleaning out his home in Trafford.    
He asked me if I needed anything.   I told him what I could use if he  
had happened to have certain items.   I'm not proud at age 67.   A  
scratch doesn't matter.   I don't need to show people how much money  
I had in the bank before I spent it.   I bought most of the furniture  
for the new apartment in the Mennonite Central Committee's Reuzit  
Store, having been referred their by the Habitat for Humanity Store.

Well Derrick didn't have what I wanted but he didn't want to say so.   
He appeared on my door step Wednesday with a brand new coffee table  
and a brand new television table.   He had stopped at Ikea in  
Pittsburgh before he left for Lancaster.   Claimed he had enough  
stuff he had never opened to trade in and get it.

Frankly, the most important thing in my life was that he drove over  
500 miles just to say hello and break bread.   But I don't think I'll  
ever discard those white tables.

There are a lot of great guys on this list.   A lot of tears in my  
life ... from it falling apart and from the wonderful things people  
do to put it back together again.

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you the week before Thanksgiving.

Thanks, Derrick.