Meeting Matt

My middle son, N8, is a huge fan of trains. Since he was three years old & we gave him his first Geo-Trax set, this boy has been hooked. Every year his love grows bigger and bigger. He wants more of them to play with, he wants books to read, he wants to ride them, he just loves trains.

Last fall The History channel debuted a program called Extreme Trains. There were eight episodes shown & we have seven of those recorded on our DVR. These were some of the first programs we added to our DVR queue when we added it to our house last year. N8 watches these (along with J5) weekly if not daily at times. He has them memorized. He loves watching shows about trains as much as he likes playing with trains.

Shortly before the shows debuted we discovered that the host, Matt Bown , not only lived in the great state of Maine, but he grew up in the town right next to us. He even attended the school my MIL worked at way back when & was in the same high school as hubby. This was big news with N8. My MIL had said she would try to set up a meeting but time passes & life goes on.

Until today.....

N8 had a double header soccer game today. It was just before the ending of the first game when my MIL shouted for me (she was across the parking lot playing with J5 & my nephew). Matt Bown himself had just come jogging in to the school parking lot & headed towards the track. My MIL headed right after him & said she was going to see if he'd meet N8.

He agreed.....



The timing was great. The game had ended & they were breaking for water. I went over & told N8 to go say "hi" to his grandmother. As we were walking towards her, I said to N8, "Hey, who's that with Grammy?" He didn't recognize him at first but was willing to meet this guy.

Matt was great. He asked N8 if he knew who he was. N8 at first said no, but then he sort of said in an awed whisper...."Matt Bown??" It was wonderful. The smile on his face would have lit up a room. They only had the chance to chat for about 3-4 minutes. They agreed that the episode about the Steam Train 844 was their favorite.

Matt certainly made N8's day & I truly thank him for taking the time with a little fan.