Shuffling Off to Buffalo
Back in my grad school days I was studying in New York and my boyfriend was upstate in Buffalo, a good eight hour train ride away.
Many weekends I’d catch the train at the Harlem 125th Street station to make the trip. Then one Friday afternoon I was waiting on the platform when the train stopped and a classmate I knew got off. We were chatting when suddenly I realized the train had started moving again.
As it gained speed I began running along side, waving my arms as my duffel bag flapped on my shoulder, and shouting, “Please stop the train, I have to get to Buffalo!”
Apparently the conductor saw me and brought the train to a grinding halt. I climbed aboard, called out a loud “Thank you!” , and off we shuffled!
(For more about my life upstate see My Snowy Year in Buffalo)
Shuffle Off To Buffalo
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
You are very lucky that the conductor stopped that train!
Yes indeed Betsy, the next train was surely hours later!
But how did I make all those trips with no cell phone?
Wow! They really stopped the train for you! That does sound like a blast from the past. Busses, yes, but trains….. I thought you might have to jump on the moving train like in the movies. Glad it worked out.
Thanx Khati, indeed I was lucky, am sure stopping the train like that wasn’t SOP!
Love the reference, Dana. And glad the conductor stopped. I was recently on an Acela and it stopped becasue, per the conductor, “the computer says we have a problem. So we need to re-boot before we can move again.” What? I doubt whether “the computer” would have stopped for you.
Am sure you’re right John, those were simpler times!
You beat the odds and a moving train, Dana. Brava to you.
Thanx Mare, I guess I did!
Wow, what a great train story! Amazing (and very lucky) that the conductor saw you AND was willing to stop the train!
Yes Suzy, as John said, today’s computerized trains probably couldn’t stop , but those were the pre-tech-revolution good ole days!
Wow! I have an epitaph to propose for you:
“Dab your wet eyes. From your ears remove the wax. For this soul, the train to Buffalo stopped in its tracks.”
Thanx Dale!