The trip took an hour and a half each way plus another 20 minutes by bus or subway to get from Pennsylvania Station to where the Photo Studio was on Park Ave.
I got up each day just before 6:00 AM and rushed to get the 6:20 Train; we would cram onto the old diesel engine train and stand for an half an hour until we got to Babylon where we changed to the newer electric trains.
With everyone else I would run to get a seat for the next hour in to City.
I had become a Dashing Dan, a regular commuter on the Long Island Railroad.
I got up each day just before 6:00 AM and rushed to get the 6:20 Train; we would cram onto the old diesel engine train and stand for an half an hour until we got to Babylon where we changed to the newer electric trains.
With everyone else I would run to get a seat for the next hour in to City.
I had become a Dashing Dan, a regular commuter on the Long Island Railroad.
If I had time I would get a coffee and butter roll from a coffee truck (roach coach) at the train station.
Once I got to work two hours later I would stop in to coffee shop on the ground floor of our building for another coffee and a toasted bran or corn muffin and then go upstairs, punch in and then wait for something to do.
If I did not have any work leftover from the day before I would wait in the little shop/office drink my coffee and read the paper until the designer and account reps came in and figured out what needed to be done that day.
There were days when I was never called to do anything until after lunch and just hung out.
There are people who have commuted 30 years or more on the LIRR, but in my year I experienced many different things.
Of course we were often late for any number of reasons: Rain, Snow, Ice, Wind, and at times it seemed that even Sunshine on a clear day would cause delays.
Once I got to work two hours later I would stop in to coffee shop on the ground floor of our building for another coffee and a toasted bran or corn muffin and then go upstairs, punch in and then wait for something to do.
If I did not have any work leftover from the day before I would wait in the little shop/office drink my coffee and read the paper until the designer and account reps came in and figured out what needed to be done that day.
There were days when I was never called to do anything until after lunch and just hung out.
There are people who have commuted 30 years or more on the LIRR, but in my year I experienced many different things.
Of course we were often late for any number of reasons: Rain, Snow, Ice, Wind, and at times it seemed that even Sunshine on a clear day would cause delays.
There were times that the train hit something on the tracks, equipment failures, a fire on the train and someone having a fatal heart attack in the smoking car.
You do not want to be at a train station after someone has been hit by a train.
I did not make it to work that day.
You do not want to be at a train station after someone has been hit by a train.
I did not make it to work that day.
One the same day that someone died on my train and i was late to work, two other people were late getting to work because someone had a heart attack on their train or subway.
I tried to make good use of my almost four hours on the train each day.
Sleep was always welcome but I would often read books or any of the number of newspapers left on the train coming home at night .
It was reading an article in one of those newspapers about public school districts banning certain books that made me want to read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and then most of his other books.
Sleep was always welcome but I would often read books or any of the number of newspapers left on the train coming home at night .
It was reading an article in one of those newspapers about public school districts banning certain books that made me want to read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five and then most of his other books.
After a short time I could even read while riding on the subway and remember laughing out loud at parts of Vonnegut’s God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.
Too many nights my diner was a slice or two of pizza and beer I would pick up running through Penn Station to catch my train.
I was aware of class snobbery on the train when I would come home with a little sawdust or paint on my work clothes.
The Wall Street suits did not like to sit with us Blue Collar Workers.
Friday nights in the summer was always fun because in addition the regular riders the Boys of Summer would be going out to their summer houses on Fire Island.
They would have bags of groceries, some little dog with bad skin and sometimes even one of their mothers came with them.
The only time I saw all of the classes mixing on the train were those guys standing between cars smoking some “Wacky Tabacci”.
The Wall Street suits did not like to sit with us Blue Collar Workers.
Friday nights in the summer was always fun because in addition the regular riders the Boys of Summer would be going out to their summer houses on Fire Island.
They would have bags of groceries, some little dog with bad skin and sometimes even one of their mothers came with them.
The only time I saw all of the classes mixing on the train were those guys standing between cars smoking some “Wacky Tabacci”.
I remember one time that I saw somebody that I rode with all the time off the train and I could not place who they were or where I knew them from.
It was an interesting time, but I glad that I had only to do it for one year and also very happy that I was no longer riding the train when the next year there was someone taking random shots at people in Penn Station.
It was an interesting time, but I glad that I had only to do it for one year and also very happy that I was no longer riding the train when the next year there was someone taking random shots at people in Penn Station.
My time in the train was interesting but the Photo Studio would offer many more stories.
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