Two Books Someone Should Write

I have often thought that I should write a book. My name is on one book as editor, but it has never appeared as an author. At one time or another, I thought I might write a book as a computer scientist or as an Episcopal Church activist. But I always seemed to have a book topic but no time to write or time to write without having a book I wanted to produce. I may never write a book.

There are, however, two books I would like to see written, but am not the person to write them

An Abandoned Railroad Bridge Pictorial

Driving from Indiana, Pennsylvania, to visit my family in the New York Finger Lakes, I was struck by the number of masonry bridge piers I saw that had once supported railroad bridges oven rivers and streams. When a railroad bridge was no longer needed, it was straightforward to remove the bridge deck and rails. Razing stone or concrete piers, however, would incur an substantial and unnecessary expense. There must be hundreds of these silent monuments across the country. In fact, I discovered one only yesterday on a hike near Clifton Springs. The former bridge carried the Lehigh Valley rails over those of the Pennsylvania, not over a body of water.

I would like to see someone write a book about such artifacts, with a title like Lost Bridges. It would be a pictorial of abandoned bridge piers with accompanying text offering structural information about the former bridge and a discussion of its development and ultimate removal. Wherever possible, photographs of the intact bridge should be included.

Such a book would be of interest to rail historians and historians of technology generally. Depending upon format and photographic quality, Lost Bridges could be an attractive coffee table book.

Is there a peripatetic railroad photographer who would like to take on this project?

Stories of Queens for a Day

My late father-in-law contracted multiple sclerosis as a young adult. He quickly became severely disabled and unable to work. His wife Virginia struggled to meet his medical needs and support their two children.

One fateful day, the TV show Queen for a Day was being broadcast from Chicago, where my wife’s family lived. Virginia received tickets to attend the show from the local Multiple Sclerosis Society. She did not expect to be a contestant, but one of the women who was got cold feet and couldn’t go in stage. Virginia was picked as her replacement.

A digression is needed here for readers too young or too sophisticated in their viewing habits to know anything about Queen for a Day. Here is a description of the program excerpted from Wikipedia:

Each contestant was asked to talk about the recent financial and emotional hard times she had been through. The interview would climax with [host Jack] Baily asking the contestant what she needed most and why she wanted to win the title of Queen for a Day. … The winning contestant was selected by the audience using an applause meter.

Virginia asked for shortwave equipment that would give her husband an activity he was capable of pursuing. She apparently made an effective emotional appeal to the audience, whose vigorous applause made her Queen for a Day. Tears were regularly shed by contestants both before and after winning on Queen for a Day. Virginia made a sober plea, however, and laughed uncontrollably when she won. When she returned home with her bouquet of roses, she announced that she won the race at Hiiaheah.

Besides being given what she asked for, Virginia received a treasure trove of products and services. Many of these were nice to have but inessential, given the family’s financial situation. Virginia was able to exchange many of the gifts for cash, and therein lies a tale.

With cash and household services won on the show, Virginia was able to go back to school to earn a master’s degree. With that in hand, she became a high school English teacher in the Chicago suburbs with an excellent salary and benefits. Queen for a Day changed her life and that of her family.

I wonder how many other women’s lives were significantly changed by winning on Queen for a Day. I can imaging a book of stories about them titled something like The Lives of Queens for a Day. Some of the stories would no doubt be heartwarming like Virginia’s. Some contestants likely benefitted from their win for only a short time. Some may have even had reason to regret their apparent good fortune.

Alas, the opportunity to write The Lives of Queens for a Day is likely past. Nearly all the show’s winners are no longer with us. Perhaps their children could tell their stories; perhaps not.

By the time I met Virginia, the effects of having been a Queen for a Day were not apparent. But Virginia always wore the watch she won on the program. The face of the watch was surrounded by crowns.

— LED, 8/17/2026