Heavy day-long rain from the Gulf storm forced dampness into places it hasn't been wet in many years and created new ponds and creeks about our hometown, now drying out in mid-November.

Before I start telling you about an interesting military veteran and his hobby, let me share a few things I heard and saw last week. Gasoline prices have been rising, far in excess of our paychecks, and so during one of many trips to the gas station, I revisited Rick Hansel at the Butcher Shop, which has been out of gas for months. Lo, he now is selling Marathon Oil gasoline, a good brand that does not contain ethanol. Soon, he will be doing some special promotions after new signs and displays go up, he said. At Kiwanis Club last Tuesday, President Rodney Buckner shared his concerns about the pending sale of the Mountain Crest Inn, where the club eats and dines. We wondered if it would remain open or will the club have to find another lunch meeting site? The Plain Talk will be doing a story on the Nov. 19 auction of what is well-known as the former Newport Holiday Inn. I also bumped into two chief law enforcers on Friday: Newport Police Chief Maurice Shults and Sheriff Claude Strange. They do share some health problems, diabetes. Chief Shults is looking slimmer and has been dieting. Sheriff Strange said he feels great after recovering from colon cancer. I will be talking with him next week and share his thoughts and news on his health.

If you drive along Cosby Highway and look where the Bryant Town dairy cream used to be, you will see Eddie Ball's construction crew putting up a new building for Wade Wester. They finished the concrete slab so walls go up next. On another visit to Food City West, I saw John Wodalski, who is dubbed the hummingbird man. I asked if the tiny birds he hosts by the hundreds have left for the season. They flew out in early November, and maybe that means colder days ahead.

Sometimes it takes the enthusiasm of youth to get us older folks to rekindle childhood interests and enjoy playing again. Such is the case for a Newport veteran who I visited at his Driskill Circle home last Tuesday, on a rainy morning. Paul Hall, at 72, is far from his youth growing up at Raven's Branch, but a distant young cousin got him into the model train hobby. All it took was for Jhavonta Ealy, age 5, to say repeatedly that he liked "choo choo trains." So, why not set up a model complete with village? Before I talk about his hobby let me tell you a little about his family, and, yes, he's related to Ransom Hall.

You can notice a slight tremor in Paul's right side as he talks or holds a cigarette. About two years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and takes medications to control it. His parents were Thomas Hall, who married the former Annie Hensley. After a time, they left the mountains and headed for the cotton mill towns of North Carolina. Thomas was a farmer turned mill worker. He fathered seven children, Paul being the middle child and only boy. Of the girls, Wanda Gosnell, who lived in NC, is deceased. Paul's other sisters are: Audrey Burrell, who is in the Mercy Health Partners convalescent center; Dorothy Moore, of Arizona; Carolyn Ferguson, of Clarksville; Joanita Self and Shirley Parton, both of Newport.

Paul did indicate that one of the reasons his father left Cocke County was "the revenue agents were looking for him." Thomas made moonshine but did not allow the children around it. "You don't need to know," he told Paul, who asked him about a still and how to make moonshine. When Paul reached age 18 he enlisted in the Air Force and ended up in Germany. Everything went well until an unfortunate accident there. Paul was shot in the chest. At first I thought he meant during some sort of mission, but it happened accidentally at a skeet shoot. This ultimately led to a disability. Nonetheless, Paul served out his years and returned to Newport working at Wall Tube, and Sonoco Products. He left during the middle 1960s for Detroit and made parts for Ford Motor Company. It was here he met his wife, the former Alice Adams of Jenkins, Kentucky. They came to Newport where Ransom Hall married the couple. From that union is one son, Paul Ray Hall, who works with Comcast Cable company in Knoxville. Paul finished out his working career at Wall Tube. Another accident capped off his workdays and made him totally disabled. He explained that he was in a car crash on Asheville Highway in the late 1980s. He never worked again.

The Newport Housing Authority has made his life better by providing a clean, modern facility where he has lived for 11 years, but alone. He does have several good friends, such as Hunley Etherton, of NC. And this is where the train comes in and his fourth cousin, Jhavonta, of Knoxville.

Now, Paul never had a toy train when young or older. He worked, not played. A couple years ago after getting the hint from Jhavonta, Paul started looking for a train and got some help from a man at Western Auto. By the summer of 2008, Paul had used a full sheet of plywood to start his train city and N scale railroad. He bought small buildings and houses plus several train cars and engines. Some are expensive such as the Santa Fe gray and red model that costs $150. He showed me Norfolk Southern, Conrail, and Burlington models in boxes. As he picked up interest and skills, despite his Parkinson's disease, he started making the tiny houses, stores, and trees. The village, I didn't get the name of it, has lights that work. It took considerable time and skills setting up the transformers, wires, lights and switches that really work.

"When you get into it, you can't quit." It is his way to keep busy, not worry about his disabilities or loneliness, and provides a special world for his little cousin. By the holidays, Paul hopes to have everything set up just right, with the black Santa Fe steam engine rolling on the tracks when Jhavonta arrives, perhaps with his mother, Stacy Ealy, to play. Can you imagine the smile on his face and where his imagination might wander?

In plain talk, why should children have all the fun, when we can take up hobbies at any age and share interests with others, young or older?