By Beth David, Editor
Awww, man! That was no fun at all. I thought we were going to hear all kinds of fun stuff about Patrick Cahh and his pal, but the Select Board kicked the can down the road (page 4). Ah well.
Meanwhile, all of our papers were gone from Town Hall on Monday. Gee…wonder where they went. I mean, really guys. You’re pathetic. Trust me…lots of people saw it anyway.
Okay…here’s a biggie. Are you ready? (I’m not.) The train…yes THE train…the TRAIN to BOSTON…for real (we think) is actually going to happen (maybe).
Now, I know some of you have been perplexed by my silence on the…. ah…I can’t get the word out.. the-the-the t-r-a-i-n to BOSTON!
Well, I grew up in these parts. My whole life that train was coming back. Didn’t someone jump in a river or say he’d eat his hat or something promising a train to BOSTON? Like 20 years ago?
So, I just didn’t believe it. I’m still skeptical, but, hey, it’s got real train tracks now, and real trains that have been running on said tracks, and humans ready to be conductors and passengers, and there are signs (SIGNS) and parking lots and everything! They even set rates.
So, I figured I’d better get something in here or the Neighb News would … would (ugh, dare I say it?), miss the train (I know, it should say boat, but…). Anyway, see page 16 for a story on how the train is supposed to start next month, for real. But, the Feds have to approve one more thing. And, with the Big Buffoon in the White House screwing up things just for fun, who knows?
But, I would be shirking my responsibility as the stellar journalist I am if I didn’t let my readers know that THE TRAIN IS COMING! THE TRAIN IS COMING! (probably).
In all seriousness, though. The train will bring problems with it of course. But, it will allow people to get to the good jobs in Boston. No matter how hard we all try, the good jobs are concentrated in the The Hub. It’s just not fair that we haven’t had a train in 62 years.
My Aunt Cil, who is no longer with us, was a hairdresser in the 50s right up to…probably the 90s. She was a pioneer, for real. She got married late in life, so before she married her lifetime man, she had to make her own way. Most of my aunts (I had an even dozen) worked in the mills at some point. But Aunt Cil had bigger aspirations. I wish I had the sense to ask her more questions when I was a teenager. But I did ask her where she went to get trained. She said Boston. I said, how the hell did you do that? Because, well, I’d seen her drive, y’know? She said….wait for it….there was a train.
Yup, she took that train to Boston every day for weeks and got trained as a hairdresser. Then she opened up Ivy’s Beauty Salon on Purchase Street and trained sooo many of a certain age. (You know who you are.) She was a successful business woman when that was a rare thing. God bless her, she was a bona fide pioneer and she didn’t even know it. She just did her thing. She lived her life. And she had a belly laugh like no one else. And the train made it possible.
I’m delighted that more people will have that option now (probably). It sure took long enough.
I’ve always felt that we must’ve really pissed off Beacon Hill (we meaning New Bedford) back when we were lighting the world with whale oil and then dominating with textiles. I think we must’ve been arrogant jerks. Because Beacon Hill sure seems to be slamming us for the last 100 years. Or, as I wrote in an op-ed in the Big Conglomerate across the river many years ago…you just can’t see the SouthCoast from Beacon Hill.
But we can see you. And now, we can get there (well, maybe, I think, probably, next month, unless…)
Until next week then, see ya,
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the Heroes!
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