My interest in transportation extends to other topics, such as: vintage automobiles especially, but not limited to, Lincoln Zephyr and Continental Mark I; aircraft of all ages (especially planes built from the beginning through World War II); aerospace; and wooden power boats.

I am an avid model builder and particularly enjoyed solid model airplanes during the 40s and 50s. Unfortunately models in this genre have since passed and been replaced with styrene models, starting in the 50s. There is nothing so challenging than to start with a block of balsa, a couple of sheets of the same material, and to begin carving to achieve the final form. To be sure, styrene models make beautiful scale models, since all the details, rivets, surface lines and contours, lines of separation of the control surfaces or panels, etc. are all molded into the parts. But there is something about those old solid models that just cannot be matched by the plastic models of the present.

While I was an enthusiast builder of model airplanes I also built models of military equipment, ships, and 1:64 "steam era " model automobiles that will be used on my hopefully future 'S' gauge model railroad layout. Most of these model automobiles have been constructed from sheet balsa, although I have built one, a 1932 Lincoln K roadster, from styrene. I also have modeled in 'HO' and 'O,' but find that 'S' gauge is my preferred gauge. As a result I have a collection of 'S' gauge trains, mostly of A.C. Gilbert manufacture.

In addition to my 'S' gauge modeling I also am enthusiastic about railroading and love 1:1 scale (prototype), especially during the time of the steam era.

I also have used and programmed computers, at least from 1981 when I acquired my first home computer, a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. Over the years I eventually acquired a TI Peripheral Expansion Box (PEB) and managed to stuff it with cards. But eventually the trusty old PEB died, and I went to a PC-XT.

Actually my first attempt at programming was done using a TI59 magnetic card programmable calculator that I bought about 1978. Using this calculator I managed to write programs to solve elliptic integrals and solve for orbital angle as a function of time. I still have the TI59, although its keyboard has long since failed. I also acquired key programmable TI58 and TI58C versions of the TI59.

Since the original 8088 (XT) I have owned an 80286, 80486, and presently have an Acer Aspire 3000 notebook with an AMD microprocessor running XP; an HP Pavilion Desktop also running XP; and an HP dv9000 notebook running the worst OS to emerge from Redmond and the wonderful programmers at MS, Vista. Although most of my programming is done using QBASIC and Quick BASIC, I also write in Pascal and FORTRAN. One of these days I intend to get into C, but just cannot find the time to do so.

I also have two Osborn Model 1 computers with the CPM operating system. These are portable (more correctly "luggable") machines that look like Singer sewing machines when they are closed up. They are fun to use to play around. Of course the CPM operating system is a dead issue.

Most of the programming that I do is in the areas of mathematics, physics, astronomy, and astrophysics. It usually is graphically oriented, as shown above.

I discovered swing and jazz in that order in my early childhood, while World War II was being waged in Europe and the Pacific Ocean. Although my parents did not have a phonograph or record player, as the devices, whether mechanical or electronic, that played those scratchy 78 rpm records of the time were called, several older cousins did. It was from their record players that I was introduced to bands like Harry James, Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and others. I was particularly attracted to the sound of trumpets and visualized myself playing one. In 1950 I began taking lessons on a borrowed cornet and got my first trumpet, a King Liberty Model for Christmas of that year. I played trumpet in the Schuylkill Haven High School Band for four years. After graduating from high school in 1955 I joined the Rainbow Hose Company Drum and Bugle Corps in June of that year and played solo soprano bugle in the Corps. The "Rainbows" claim to fame was that we won the Eastern State Championship at the Pennsylvania State Fire Convention parade held in Lancaster, PA in October 1955. Although I no longer play with a drum and bugle corps I still enjoy listening to recordings of a good corps.

In the late 1940s I was introduced to jazz and specifically the music of Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington in an unusal way. The local movie theater in Schuylkill Haven, PA, the Rio showed movie clips of the top bands of the time as the patrons entered the theater and found their seats. It was during one of these occasions that they showed a clip of Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing "Sophisticated Lady." I fell in love with the smooth, sophisticated sound of the 40s Ellington band immediately. When finally I got a record player for Christmas in 1956 one of the first records I bought was "Ellington '55" where I heard such Ellington compositions as "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Rockin' In Rhythm," and "Happy Go Lucky Local" that added to my comprehension of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Later I added bands and individuals like Stan Kenton, Count Basie, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, and many others to my range of interest. There are many classical jazz groups to which I enjoy listening, but I have never been able to get myself into a mood for modern jazz. When I started college Ornette Coleman was coming on the scene with Third Stream jazz, but I did not take to it. In particular I like big band jazz and some small groups, especially Satchmo, Dizzy, and Bird. I also enjoy the "pastel section" of the Duke Ellington orchestra, a "small group" within the band called upon for ensembles such as "Black and Tan Fantasy."

In March 1959 I went to my first jazz concert at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Billy Holiday, who passed on about two months later, was joined by Dizzy Gillespie and the Duke Ellington orchestra. As a trumpet player I was fascinated by the lip of Willie "Cat" Anderson. Duke featured the entire trumpet section with a piece written especially for that section entitled "El Gato." Those high notes that came from Anderson's trumpet were unbelievable for someone who at that time thought hitting high 'C' was good. This guy left high 'C' in the dust! For a good sample of Cat Anderson's lip I refer you to the song "Madness in Great Ones" number on the "Such Sweet Thunder" Shakespearean suite album.

My musical taste is not restricted to jazz, however. Since I read, write, and speak German I enjoy singing German Lieder and annually on Christmas Eve perform a solo of "Stille Nacht" in my local church. My favorite performer of Lieder is Dietriech Fischer-Dieskau, whom I discovered singing the part of Wolfram von Eschenbach in Wagner's "Tannh­äuser". In addition I also love to listen to the music of the Baroque period, classical music, and Wagnerian opera. My vinyl and CD collection has a heavy infusion of Wagner. His dynamics and power are especially to my liking.

Sylvia and I dance for the first time as husband and wife

In loving memory of my beautiful wife, Sylvia Ann Seitz Boussum
Born: 7 November 1945
Passed: 31 December 2003
I love you always.
Tom

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Reading P7sb 350 Smoking It Up Near Leesport, PA

Note:

This locomotive was the inspiration for A.C. Gilbert's American Flyer Atlantics.

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