Commuter Train Ride into New York City…

Day 1, Part 1
Monday – April 21, 2008
Today our daughter-in-law woke up in a very brave mood and took us into New York City. We walked the few blocks from their house in town to the train station where we would catch the commuter train into the City.

My son has on occasion caught the commuter train, but most days he drives about thirty minutes, parks his car and catches the ferry which passes around the area connecting New Jersey and New York and right into his office area. After a short walk, he’s there in his office. This works for him most time maybe because of the time schedules of the train. He just finds it more convenient to catch the ferry than ride the train.

My daughter-in-law, my husband, Little Analyzer, Little Free Spirit, Beautiful Blue Eyes and a little twelve-year old neighbor girl and I arrived at the train station just a couple of minutes before the train came and left. We had to get our tickets on the train because the ticket office wasn’t open.

Anyway, the train had no intentions of waiting on us and we would have missed that train had we not moved a little faster. (Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe daughter-in-law was planning for us to all board the plan and leave her behind. She was downstairs getting her morning cup of coffee. We weren't buying that plan to leave us behind. We would have been lost forever!)

We all piled onto the train, which was already pretty much filled when we got on. Two-year old Beautiful Blue Eyes claimed his own seat facing the other three kids, and they all occupied themselves chatting and playing games.

The conductor came around and checked the tickets, or in our case, took our money. He asked if we wanted a round-trip ticket or one way and my daughter hesitated a moment then said round trip. He took her money and then ours. We were lucky enough to get a senior citizens discount and ours was around $20. I don’t remember what hers was. It was a small mint because she had four kids and an adult (herself) to buy tickets for.) After we had paid, she remembered...we were supposed to return on the ferry with my son from his office later in the afternoon.

“Too late, lady, I can’t give you a refund.” It’s understandable how she could have made the mistake. She did have responsibility of two old folks and four little to middle sized ones. The conductor excused himself, then came back shortly and told her to check with a certain section when we arrived at Penn Station and they would give a refund. Fair enough.

Beautiful Blue Eyes finally settled down in a nest of jackets the four kids had piled over on his seat. It seemed he had just gotten comfortable when the train slowed to a screeching, noisy, ear-piercing stop. He immediately leapt to his feet, stood in the middle of his seat, turned to the sleepy passengers and loudly proclaimed in his best conductor style, “ALL DONE!”

Mommy quietly told him, “Not yet. We have a few more stops before we’re there.” This went on for maybe four or five more stops with the Little conductor jumping up from his seat and announcing each time, “ALL DONE!”

No one else seemed amused except his proud grandparents! What a darling child he was. So very cute! The rest of the sour pusses on board just appeared to fall back asleep. I’m sure they had thought they would be able to catch a few more snoozes before finally being shocked into work mode forty-five minutes or so down the road.
“ALL DONE!” “ALL DONE!” “ALL DONE!” over and over while each time Mommy patiently reminded him, “Not yet…We have a few more stops before we’re there,” and each time he would lie down and again after much wiggling and squirming, his pile of jacket pillows would fall to the nasty floor. Same routine. Grab jacket off floor, poke it back under his head, wait again for the slowing train.

Finally, he decided to join me in my seat after my fellow rider vacated his seat at one of the stops. He chattered away, asking “Dis da stop, Ganmomma?” “Dis it?” “Dare yet?” etc. until it really was finally time for him to make his real announcement. We waited patiently while those other people crowded off the train as though they couldn't wait to be the first into their office for the day, or were afraid they would be. Maybe they were headed to the nearest Starbucks.

Off the train at last, at Penn Station. Not the cleanest place in the world, but I guess it wasn’t the dirtiest, either. Our International Airport couldn't have been busier. There were so many people staggering around trying to avoid four kids and three adults who obviously didn't know where in the heck they were going. Up the stairs we went, trying to get our refund. Down the stairs to another location to get our refund which upstairs we had been told they couldn’t give it to us. After back and forth for a while we were told we couldn’t get a refund but could use the tickets later. Oh well.

Did I mention we had a stroller for Beautiful Blue Eyes and it had to be carried up and down those steps by my daughter-in-law. She made so many steps up and down carrying that stroller and each time it contained a 35 pound little boy loaded with diaper bags, sippy cups, jackets, etc. That was just at Penn Station. How she kept going, I don’t know! But she did, and didn’t complain one single bit.