March 31, 2008. This morning's sad little shred of resistance: Standing on the platform at Princeton Junction in the gray, moist morning air, waiting for the 8:40 to the city—the 8:01 having been baldly, unexplainedly, in-your-facedly canceled, the 8:23 consequently as packed as a rush hour Tokyo subway—I cue up the ipod to Solomon Burke's "Fast Train."
Yeah, right.
Ah, but is it really so far from the mark, the speed factor aside? "...And you start breaking down/"Cause you're under the strain/And you jump on a fast train/...Ain't nobody here on your waveband/Ain't nobody gonna give you a helping hand/And you start breaking down/And just go into the sound/When you hear that fast train."
As train songs go, it's got some lines that most assuredly speak to the New Jersey Transit commuter, that hapless soul whose days roll away, slowly, lurchingly, draggingly, inevitably, irretrievably, on those sorry-ass tracks between Penn Station and whatever Jersey junction he or she calls home. Let this post be the first in a blog that will speak (or sometimes just grumble or even grunt) for all those soldiers fighting the endless, bloodless war in the railway trenches. (O, where is the Wilfred Owen of the Northeast Corridor?) There will be no schedule, no regular stops or departures and absolutely no apologies for the inconveniences. Then again, there will be no fare either, and plenty of seating up front, to the rear and smack-dab in the middle.
Welcome aboard!
TODAY'S SCORECARD
AM - 8:01, canceled; 8:23, SRO; 8:40, aisle seat
PM - 8:07, window seat; make the Dinky
TODAY'S TRAIN SONG
"Fast Train" by Solomon Burke
TODAY'S TRACKSIDE SIGNAGE
WE BUY
GOLD
WORDS TO LIVE BY
"Course it stickin'! It's barbed wire. Stickin' what it s'posed to do!"
--Junkman to Dukie, on The Wire
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