Passing Cronies
I was sitting at the train station yesterday afternoon in South Orange, New Jersey, on my way home from school for the weekend, when I was introduced to an elder gentleman. Probably in his mid-sixties the two of us began speaking with one another and had quite an interesting conversation as he whistled away the tune, "I want to be in America", a song from the West Side Story. We got to speaking of school, and college majors, and the futures of young children in America today. I learned that he was a lawyer, of litigation law. That he attended law school at the University of Michigan and has been practicing in Newark, NJ during most of his career. I learned that he would take a train anywhere - Summit, Hoboken, New York City. Anywhere to get him out of where he was - South Orange. And I learned that he was going to his fiftieth high school reunion the next day, October 24, 2003. And that it scared him to say the number of that reunion. He was an amazing person, and a wonderful conversationalist.
There are not many people in today's society that will randomly befriend you at a train station. That will walk up to you and strike the conversation which may sound as though the two of you were old cronies from high school, fifty years prior. To have encountered this gentleman as I did, was beautiful.
A train arrived and he stepped on without the knowledge of its final destination. He said, "Goodbye." And I replied, "It was nice speaking to you. Take care." And he gave a waive, and I watched him travel down the line of the Morris/Essex County Line Railroad. I smiled and watched the leaves that followed the path of the train crisply, fly throughout the air.
It was a beautiful fall day, and I had met a wonderful person. There wasn't much more I could ask for as I boarded my train for New York City. And even if there were, what I had experienced was just enough.
There are not many people in today's society that will randomly befriend you at a train station. That will walk up to you and strike the conversation which may sound as though the two of you were old cronies from high school, fifty years prior. To have encountered this gentleman as I did, was beautiful.
A train arrived and he stepped on without the knowledge of its final destination. He said, "Goodbye." And I replied, "It was nice speaking to you. Take care." And he gave a waive, and I watched him travel down the line of the Morris/Essex County Line Railroad. I smiled and watched the leaves that followed the path of the train crisply, fly throughout the air.
It was a beautiful fall day, and I had met a wonderful person. There wasn't much more I could ask for as I boarded my train for New York City. And even if there were, what I had experienced was just enough.