# Love my tender...



## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

My, oh my....*L* I spend the weekend looking at houses and come back to find the forum on fire! Since everyone else seems to have had their say, let me make it worse by adding mine. It always worked in dealing with my ex-wife, so why not? 

I have two points to offer---the first is simple. All gauges are welcome on MTF; by exterpolation, all are welcome in any segment of MTF including the S scale segment. Argue with me if you want, but I will stick my tongue out at you and go "THHHHHPPPT". This will leave your face quite moist, so think carefully before you argue. Respect is part of that welcoming. In the military, you are trained to salute the rank and not the man; here, the inverse holds true. You must respect the person, even if you know he operates lesser equipment. That would be reason for compassion, rather than disrespect.

My second point is that I won a caboose on ebay.

It's a pretty nice caboose---looks nearly new after 50+ years, so it's aged better than I have. Cabooses are like the showpiece that wraps up a steam consist---a pretty one warms your heart. However, if you look at it closely, it has no coupler on the back end. It's pretty and showy, but in a sense, it's dead weight.

A while back, Stillakid sent me a tender. Tenders are like the red-headed stepchild of a steam consist. They're kind of ugly and no one really pays much attention to them. However, they do have one redeeming quality: they have a coupler. Without the ugly lil tender, the consists can't go anywhere. Each, in turn, helps the rest get to where they need to go, up the hills and down...except that showy little caboose I'm so proud of. He's no help to anyone.

So.....looking back over the stuff that's been posted, I'd like to ask everyone to reconsider what they've said and ask themselves if their comments in some way helped anyone or made the site a better place to be. If the answer is "no", then perhaps it would be good to make amends. I'm also going to warn everyone I will not allow it to continue. Should I see any ill-spirited comments, I will cut off the beer and send everyone upstairs to spend the rest of the evening listening to your wives. I understand your sister-in-law is considering a hysterectomy and your wife needs to discuss that with someone. 

Thank you,
Reckers


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Reck,

Thank you, most sincerely, for the very appropriate comments and carefully-crafted analogy, above. And while you blended in just the right mix of humor, the underlying message and theme is one that should ring (and continue to ring) to all who enjoy and participate in MTF.

Very well done, sir. I appreciate the wisdom and reflection to help set and keep things on a straight track.

TJ


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Teej, we have a saying in the south..."Even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn." If I got something right, I'm just as surprised as you are. S scalers are nothing but rascals and pirates; they'll steal your shoes out from under you while you're wearing them. I guess that's why I like them so much. We all mean well---we just have a hard time not jerking the chains of the other scales. I think Tennessee Ernie Ford said it best:

"Welllll, if you see me coming, better step aside
a lot of men didn't---a lot of men died.
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't get you, the left one will!"

Keep the faith,
Reckers


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