Railroad Day!

Today I went to the Silver Spike Festival in Tucson, which commemorates the 130th anniversary of the railroad coming through Tucson, Arizona. The mayor, in proper mayor attire, seen here to the right of the lady in the white dress (just his top hat, really, but that's what I mean by "proper mayor attire"), proclaimed March 20th "Railroad Day" in Tucson, and there will be festivities every year from now on.

This is good news, because it was a really fun day. They put bunting on the train, which was restored and presented to the city in 1955, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the railroad. When I rule the world, all occasions of civic pride will have bunting.

The great grandson of Estevan Ochoa, an entrepreneur who presented the railroad with a silver spike in 1880, gave a speech, and it included part of Estevan's original words. He said "we must bend our shoulders to the oars of progress, and... become the shining star in the constellation of the United States". The actual silver spike is in the case in front of the train.

They read a lot of the speeches from back then, when people really had a way with words, remarking on how the iron horse, "with pounding, steel-flocked flanks" had linked Tucson with the civilized world, and how men "with their pluck, courage, and capital, brought the iron wheels of progress" etc etc. There were gunfights, and a cannon (fired quite unexpectedly by guys dressed like they were from the old Presidio in 1775), and tons of people in western outfits! Some of the dresses were really amazing, as were the hats:

There were a few steampunk people in the mix, as well - one of them gave me his card (I was dressed steampunk enough to stand out, I guess). Here are some more cool outfits, and a statue of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday, commemorating the time they killed Frank Stilwell in a gunfight at the train station in Tucson, in March of 1882. It was part of the Arizona War, which began with the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Stilwell may have killed Morgan Earp.

I forgot!

I was going to use another example in my last post, about technological optimism. I just got Spirit Tracks, the steampunk Legend of Zelda! It's so cute it made me fly away on a hot air balloon to the land of squee, although some people don't like it so much.

There's a temple in the middle of the map that's a roundhouse, and it turns when you unlock more tracks to new realms! As you explore and meet people, they ask you to do things for them (it is Zelda, after all). Said things involve driving them, their friends, and their groceries all over creation. And it's totally fun! All the townspeople are so excited that they are connected by rails now, and they can sell their cuccoos, and meet strange creatures, and see snow. People import goods from far away and start businesses, and all kinds of stuff.

See? Technological optimism. Seriously, it's an awesome game, for many reasons. Although I think I like Phantom Hourglass better. It was harder and had more Linebeck.