August 2024
If your travels take you anywhere with a reliable railway system and you have the time to spare, please do yourself a favor…jump aboard the train, explore the areas unfolding around you, and create a mental storyboard about what you’re observing. I was recently given the opportunity to take the train from Grand Central out to Connecticut. Now, if you’ve ever had the chance to see Grand Central Station in person, you know it’s a sight in and of itself. But let’s save that topic for a separate entry in a future month. Back to the train ride. During a previously mentioned work trip to the northeast, I took the Metro North to Norwalk for a dinner meeting. After settling in, I found myself gazing wistfully out the window as I am wont to do (when I probably should have been answering work emails). I got lost in the charming colonial clapboard homes we were lumbering past and making stops at stations along the way for loading and unloading. The architecture and design of homes in the northeast and mid-Atlantic are quite a bit different than what I’m used to in my part of the country, so my vivid imagination and flair for storytelling often takes over. I found myself wondering about and creating backstories for the families or roommates inhabiting each dwelling. What lives do they lead? Are they lifelong northeasterners or recent transplants, are they raising a family, newly divorced and happily single, or are they deciding that it’s time to launch or wind down a career? Do they have thick accents? Are they arguing or laughing with one another, or are they telling the highs and lows of their work and schooldays? Are they ordering in or whipping up the evening’s meal? Are they listening to Spotify and nervously perusing the dating app their friends urged them to download but are terrified to swipe right? Are they on FaceTime with their parents, children, or grandchildren? Are they studying for the bar or helping their tween with algebra, are they giving their toddler a bath, or are they picking out their outfit for the next day (like a certain someone I know)? Are they multi-lingual or are they illiterate? Do they clean their home and mow their yard or are they fortunate enough to hire out those chores? Do they lead rich and rewarding lives? Or do they live with demon-filled regrets? Maybe they’re paying bills, wondering how the heck they’re going to make ends meet until payday like many of us have at one point or another in our adult lives. Do they have a big and boisterous family and a supportive friend group? Are they only children with a small handful of friends and fractured relationships with their parents or children? Are they happy, lonely, bored, madly in love, under pressure, hopeful, despondent, or joy-filled? Sometimes, however, like during the ride to Norwalk in March of this year, I flip the script on myself and picture the characters in my inventive story gazing out their windows, watching the train go by, and imagining what kind of life the passengers on the New Haven Line lead. Are we happy or sad, what is our origins story, and do we live rich and rewarding lives? In those moments, I’m considering the journey of life as it unfolds around me. Ultimately, we’re all trying to navigate this journey we call life, whether we’re on the train or watching it pass by, each of us searching for fulfillment in the lives we lead. It’s worth considering, don’t you think…are we active passengers on the train or are we merely letting that train pass us by?
Another entertaining option for your consideration – particularly for those of us in the middle of the country with adventurous spirits – is to take Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer to Fort Worth and Dallas – specifically during OU/TX week. The tales of the trek are legendary, just like the rivalry between the two college football powerhouses. The train’s cars are full of unwitting businessmen and women who clearly didn’t check the calendar or football schedule, inebriated college students and supposed “grown-ups” thoroughly enjoying the beverage and snack car, and others who are headed down for the game, enjoying their Diet Coke and donuts along with the entertaining show taking place, free of charge over the course of the three-and-a-half-hour train ride. Where else can you find international co-eds with delightful European accents discussing the sleeping arrangements in their single hotel room for the next few nights in Big D? Or perhaps the parents “prepping” their teenage children about the spicy and colorful language they may hear inside the Cotton Bowl or walking through the midway at State Fair Park on Saturday? Sections of the train are filled with raucous fans already in gameday spirit singing, chanting, cheering, and, as always, “Boomer Sooner” (and Texas sucks!) can be heard loud and clear. Another trip to the Lone Star State found our rider skillfully avoiding the shower from a tray full of tumblers filled with Bloody Mary mix and heavy pours of Tito’s. That rider was clearly not me because, if you’re paying attention, you know that stuff would have gone all over your gal wearing her khaki capris. Each October I’m treated to tales from the tracks and truly can’t wait for the second weekend of that glorious month to finally arrive. For multiple reasons!
Big Suitcase Girl 
Leave a comment