The Downtown Train

This is a very annoying week to be taking the train downtown every day. The reason for this is that you have a lot of people who are off of work who decide that this would be a good time to take the family on the train and visit the big city. For many this is their only visit into the downtown abyss they make all year. Thus, you have a lot of people riding the train that don’t know the train etiquette. Believe it or not there are certain rules to riding the train that if you don’t take it every day you have no idea about.

The morning commute should be quiet as possible. Most people are still half-awake and want to do nothing more then sleep or bury their head into the paper. Sadly since these yokels decide to bring their pack of kids with them it is usually a nightmare of talking, screaming, and crying on the train in the morning. Yes, I understand that they are all off to Marshal Fields and Daley Plaza to have fun but I have to go to work. I won’t be having an enjoyable vacation day so for my sake please rein your offspring in and stop letting them use the train car as a playground.

The worst part is that they will let their kids’ just sit anywhere. I sit upstairs most days. Inevitability the parents will grab a seat downstairs and let their kids ride upstairs by themselves basically letting them run amok unsupervised. This can cause a blinding headache early in the morning that only a Vicodin or heroin can ease.

I know I sound like a crotchety old fart that is set in his ways. Well, I admit that I am. However, I ride that train each and every day. I have been riding it for ten years therefore, it becomes very mundane doing so. I guess I take the loop area for granted. I understand the excitement of leaving the burbs and heading down to the city. I think we can all thank Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off for showing a suburban youth how cool downtown can be.

I remember one day in my senior year of high school. It was a mid-February morning just like any other morning. I got to school and was dredging along to go to my first class when I met up with my posse like I did every morning. We were all bitching about school when someone suggested we take our own day off and see the city. Now, I was not one to ditch school very often but for some reason when the suggestion was made I went along with it.

Dell, Doyle, Zar and I all piled in Paul Kolinek’s Red Ford Torino and we headed to the city. We maybe had twenty bucks between us but we somehow made a day of it. We parked the car and started walking aimlessly in the city. Paul had an ATM card his mother had given him and being the responsible youth that he was took out some money so we could eat lunch at the Water Tower. We went to the Sears Tower and did all of the typical stuff one would do as a suburban youth who doesn’t venture much out of Bridgeview did. Sure we all had to serve Saturday detentions for skipping but it in the end it was worth it for the fun we all had that day.

It’s funny now, I walk past that same Sears Tower on a daily basis and it barely phases me. I mean here it is the tallest building in the United States and I barely even notice it anymore. I have become used to it. I no longer am that seventeen-year-old kid who loved sneaking away and seeing what was beyond my small town borders. Now, I get the privilege of working in the greatest city in the world. So, as much as those morning annoyances are on the train maybe it is still worth it as maybe one of those kids will realize there is more to living in Chicago then their bland suburban existence.