“A train! A train! A train! A train! Could you, would you on a train?” (Dr. Seuss).
One person who could and would do anything on a train is Patrick McQueen. He loves trains and knows their history, the different types of trains, their schedules, and any interesting details he can find out about them. In fact, Patrick has a brother in Nebraska that he enjoys visiting. While visiting his brother, he has attended Rail Fest, a railroad festival with a variety of vendors, twice and has even been to the Golden Spike Tower where he could see trains arriving and leaving destinations from every direction.
His love of trains has led to multiple amazing family trips.
“We took our first train trip from Meridian to Atlanta,” stated Patrick. “We’ve gone on a train trip five times already.”
Although he has taken multiple trips on a train, there is one type of train trip in particular that Patrick would love to take.
“I want to take a trip where I can stay in a sleeping car on a train,” said Patrick.
His love of trains developed at a very young age. Patrick was born prematurely and experienced a difficult time in his life at a very young age. At around 18 months old, he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus and had a shunt put in to help drain the fluid. Around that time, he stopped speaking as much. Although his family originally thought the speech regression was related to that diagnosis, they later found out that it was because of autism.
Since he stopped talking and would only mimic, it was decided that Patrick would begin school at only three years old. Patrick’s teacher loved his teacher, Kari Phillips, and she was able to work with him and figure out what would help him the most in the classroom.
Not only was Ms. Phillips was working with Patrick at school, but his parents were doing everything they could to help him at home as well. His dad bought a computer program to help Patrick learn to speak again, and it worked perfectly. Patrick has a photographic memory and could remember and begin to say all the different words and stories with ease.
In fact, the first thing he did when learning to speak again was memorize Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
His teacher recognized his talent at school and used it to help him excel. She would frequently hand him a microphone in class and ask him to recite Green Eggs and Ham to the rest of the class.
Patrick has never allowed the autism to slow him down. In fact, he has overcome most of the hurdles his autism had in place and has been able to use the amazing abilities he’s gained to be the wonderful person he is today.
He is becoming very self sufficient and works at Cash Saver in Quitman. No matter what, customers know when they see Patrick that he will give them a huge smile and greet them with open arms. In fact, it is being able to interact with the various customers that Patrick really enjoys.
“I like to help the people find what they’re looking for,” stated Patrick.
Thanks to his outstanding photographic memory, Patrick knows where everything in the store is located. His attention to detail causes him to be very organized when in the store, and he will even try to organize and arrange other stores when shopping if he sees items out of place.
When he isn’t working, Patrick is using a talent of his to bring a smile to others: drawing. He does amazing drawings and frames them to send out to family members in other states and various groups that help others. In fact, one of his drawings is on display in the Ronald McDonald House.
If he isn’t drawing, then he is enjoying watching some sports and NASCAR.
“My favorite NASCAR driver is Tony Stewart,” explained Patrick. “He’s retiring, so my pick will be his partner, Kevin Harvick, when Tony isn’t racing anymore.”
Patrick is also working on creating something he has always wanted at home: a model train set with trees, a town, an airport, and many other things for the train to drive around and through.
“We have the table set up,” said Patrick, “but we’re still laying the tracks right now.”
Patrick loves his church and takes his job as an usher at the church very seriously.
One of the things Patrick loves to do is research different things and learn as much as he can. He passion for trains fits perfectly with his desire to learn, and he views learning about the railroad system as a way to see and know about the past, present, and future. It is his love of learning and trains that leads him to offer the following advice to everyone he knows:
“All kids should learn the history of the railroad and take a trip on a train ride.”
