I never thought I'd see the Baldwin Park Branch used for passenger service back when I was working the Bassett job. I never thought I'd see the Perris passenger line actually completed, or finally, even Redlands being rebuilt.

I never thought I'd see 55,000 passengers a day on the Expo line, back when I last spotted the Ringling Bros Circus train in front of USC to unload in 1986.

I was told by the Deputy Executive Director of the LACTC (LACMTA's previous incarnation back in 1987, that I would "never see any light rail beyond Sierra Madre Villa" because the Pasadena line would never generate the predicted ridership, and shouldn't even be funded.... Now, it is operating to Azusa, and is being extended out to Pomona...

Of course, when my dad took me out of high school one morning to go with him to the dedication of the brand new 210 by Governor Reagan, I never thought I would see that it could take nearly 30 minutes, not even at rush hour, just to go from Santa Anita to what was "then" the still "future" unfinished 605 interchange in Duarte... I note that my high school friends and I had already "dedicated" it, by moving the cones and barriers, about a week earlier, and seeing how fast we could get to Duarte... It only took about 6 minutes, back then.....

Back when I was young fireman on picket duty at LAUPT in early 70's during the "big" strike, back when you could short a cannon down the passenger tunnel without any danger of hitting a living soul most of the day, I thought I'd never see 100,000 passengers and a couple of hundred train movements a day, going in and out again.

I never thought I'd ever see an ATSF 2900 operating...

I never thought I'd see a flying B-29, which happened to me for the first time in my life, just 3 weeks ago, when it went over my house... There is nothing quite like the sound of four high horsepower radial engines flying over at about 2500 feet, to get your attention...

Imagination, good will, and a lot of hard work...made a lot of things I thought I'd never see come about...