Polar Express

m dewolfe

every year I have the neighbor come over and ring sleighbells on a tree trimmers pole outside my kids window on christmas eve. As soon as the little nippers are in bed and I hit the light he gives a little jingle and the kids eyes open wide.....being a dad is so cool. after seeing this movie I am looking for an old steam whistle to give a long blast next year...hea hea hea.....mark

John R. Hall

Believe

Finally saw "Polar Express" today at OmniMax theater in 3D. Wow. Our daughter, whose 10th birthday we celebrated today, wanted to remove my 3D glasses to see my teary eyes. I said, "No, I need to leave them on longer." Our son asked me why I was crying and I said, "You'll understand when you are a Daddy."

See the movie...and always believe in the unbelieveable. If you do, you will always hear the bells ring.

Steve Ebels_2

That movie

It made my eyes get teary also, but not only for the "hear the bell" thing.

Maybe you noticed the old department store in one of the scenes. The name on the front was Herpolshimers, or as it was known to me, "Herps". Herps was kitty corner across the street from the W.J. Dykstra company. Dykstras was a wholesale general merchandise distributor that carried dry goods, housewares, jewlery, carpeting and tile, some furniture and lamps, but best of all TOYS!!! By the hundreds, even thousands. One of the seven floors of that building was nothing but TOYS!!!

When I was a wee tad, dad and mom would load us, Mark and myself, in the old Pontiac station wagon and take us along when they went to buy stuff from Dykstra's. Mark and I got to be on a first name basis with all the help there and even called old man Dykstra, Mr. Willie. We were enthralled with the elevator and would ride it with anyone who happened to be going up or down. Didn't matter what direction. More often than not, Dad would buy us some little trinket from the toy department to take home with us. I still have a plastic soldier that came with a parachute which could be thrown or dropped off a roof. That was all there was to it; you just threw him up in the air and watched the parachute open as he came gently back to earth.

We would always go across the street to have lunch at Herp's. They had an in store cafeteria with a lot of stuff us little country boys had never heard of so we stuck with burgers.

Funny how an image or a picture can trigger a memory that hasn't come to the surface for a couple decades.

The times were a lot simpler back then...........gettin kinda misty eyed just thinking about again.

Mark Hunt

My 4 year old


screamed "THE BELL!!!!!' when he opened the present. Brought the house down!

What a GREAT movie.

If Tom Hanks is involved, chances are it will be a good movie.

A sure addition to our DVD collection!

Mark H

P.S. I didn't cry..........really

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BillW@honeywell

The locomotive they used...

was real, but obviously computer enhanced. She's the 1225, an ex-Pere Marquette Railroad 2-8-4 Berkshire type, and she's been completely restored and runs in the Owosso/New Buffalo area of Michigan. The sound effects were real, too, recorded with the 1225 last summer. The locomotive is owned by a group called the Steam Railroading Institute, and I believe they are HQ'd in Owosso. Anywhere near you, Steve Ebels?

Steve Ebels_2

About

120 miles South of me. A lot of the things in the picture are Michigan based because the guy who wrote the story grew up in Grand Rapids. In fact, the little boys house is the house the author grew up in if I remember correctly.

Paul Pollets

Great Pic!!

Saw it at the Seattle IMAX in 3D. The technology was unbelievable. Especially when the train comes out from the screen. Very moving.

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