The Village Voyager: The Commuter Chronicles

Today seems as good a day as any for my first edition of the commuter chronicles. 

It's the day of the New York Football Giants celebratory ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes in honor of their big Super Bowl XLVI win.  I am a huge Giants fan. I was raised in a Giants house, my brother is an absolute fanatic, and I married a Giants family. We all plan weekends around game time, and Sunday dinners are all football friendly during the season.  We had rituals at the end of this season to will another win, and Sunday night was nothing short of stressful/exciting/dramatic.  It seems that the majority of Long Island feels the same way, and they have joined me on my morning commute to attend the festivities and see their hometown sports heroes.  And I have a front row seat to witness the antics and attend four hours of people watching.

I walk to the train from my house, and my route takes me up Oak to Grove Place and through the high school parking lot. Today the lots were filled with kids presumably gathering to cut school and heading to the train for the city. I'm not judging. I did the same for St.  Patty's Day back in my day. [Sorry, Mom.]  There was also security at the school, likely watching for parking spot stealers and to monitor the traffic building up on all sides.

As I made my way to the station, I saw floods of blue heading through the parking lot, off of busses, and all over the platform. Go big blue, indeed.  They were armed with cold weather gear, noise-makers and quite the assortment of food and beverage. There are chants and impressions of the players, and plenty of gossip going on too.  It's all exciting and festive and celebratory... If not a little bit claustrophobic and sweaty for this rider.

There are many school-age children on this train and I'm not sure that I agree with that.  Are they going to be able to see the parade at all?  Will this really be a learning experience moreso than a day at school and watching as a family later tonight?  There are adults watching the game or highlights on tablets. With the sound on.  We have just left our last stop before Penn Station, and right next to me is a mother and son riding in the aisle since the train is so crowded. The child is standing for the next 40 minutes of our ride while grown adults sit nearby. Apparently the good mood does not carry over to improving manners.

As we emerged at Penn Station, the bucket-bands had the crowd all riled up. They sang Celebration and We Are The Champions as I waddled and pushed my way through to get to work.  In my head I was joining the crowd and doing my best Cruz salsa dance. Celebrate, we will.