The Barney of Trains
I dislike Thomas the Tank Engine. There I’ve said it. No, dislike isn’t strong enough, I despise Thomas the Tank Engine. I find the writing to be clumsy, the moral underpinnings to be rigid, and the images to be downright creepy. I share this with other parents and yet Thomas continues to dominate a child’s life at a certain point and thereby, a parent’s life.
I threw away a Thomas book the other day because it was downright puritanical in its vision of a Useful Train Engine. I have cringed when a train has refused to go up a mountain because they are scared and it scares everyone else. I have suffered from foolish and silly freight cars one too many times.
So when Tin said he wanted to be Thomas the Tank Engine for Halloween I almost passed out. Little by little, this mom was able to weave her subversive hand into the mix by telling him I would make his costume instead of buying the standardized Thomas one.
And so Thomas morphed into Don Cornelius and Tin’s Soul Train was born and for one more day, I have been the victor over the Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s awkward and heavy-handed moral train tale.
Goodbye Thomas – hello Don.
