Remembering John Jackson

      No one I know has a smile as broad as John Jackson's smile.  Had he been with us today (and perhaps he was), that ready smile would have been broader still, as an overflowing crowd of friends and family joined in Yarmouth to celebrate his life.  Many members of the MGRS came to share in remembering John with Gigi and her family.  John's son, Johnnie, spoke for all of us when he recalled John's warmth, his humor, and his capacity for hard work.  John was a lifelong patriot who once served in the Signal Corps.  In a moving ceremony, an Army honor guard presented an American flag to Gigi in his honor.

     Those of us in the MGRS who knew John might say we knew him in his later years.  But even if John had lived into his Nineties, I doubt if he ever would have had "later years."  John was always young, always as curious and inventive as a child, and always filled with wonder.  This winter, when we visit or operate the Holiday Mall display, we'll be seeing John's ideas and inspirations.  More than this, in the sounds of the trains, the smell of the smoke and ozone, and the bright eyes of children who gather around to watch, we can remember the joyous man who made it possible, a lucky man who greeted each day of his life as if it were Christmas morning.