The Man Who Never Returned

"People in the West don't understand how easy it is to get around [without a car]."  

-- Transportation expert, quoted by Linda Valdez, AZ Republic, 12/21/18

I did my time on the LIRR going to graduate school and work, a mind-numbing experience.   My grandfather organized the Boston Carmen's Union (and picked Felix Frankfurter to arbitrate during the big strike).  It seems like every other person in my neighborhood is from New York ... some of the neighbors even have siblings born in the same hospital as me or who went to my high school.   My next door neighbor went to the same college as I did in Massachusetts.  It takes us as long to get to the T station near grandma's house near Boston as it does for me to drive to downtown Phoenix.   Lots of people in the West have a really good understanding of what it's like to get around without a car and how mind-numbing it can be now to travel in Boston and New York.

The rail systems in New York and Boston were built decades ago when there was no minimum wage and health care benefits, and bargaining for a five day work week was a big deal ....  Good luck to those who want to replicate those rail systems elsewhere in an era when the elves have to be paid a living wage.

Good luck to private private investors who want to build a railroad to Tucson from Phoenix ... but what travelers in the West really need is another lane on I-10 and/or a surtax on all the trucks headed to California that clog I-10's lanes (let's call it a carbon tax). 

BTW:  there was a time when a 10-year-old girl (ie, my mother) could be handed five dollars and be sent to downtown Boston via the MTA with her little sister to buy shoes (and the elves lived in triple-decker tenements).   "If you have a problem find a policeman."  Would anyone in their right mind do that today ... not in Boston and certainly not Phoenix ... when to find a policeman you dial 911 and have to wait 30 minutes to an hour for the cop to show up.  We're going to grandma's house for Christmas ... Uncle Paul's loaning us a car to get around when we get there.

Nollaig Shona!

Gilligan

Data Scientist

Linebacker Strike Group, Pocket Money Strike Group, Freedom Train, North SAR

Cook/Deckhand, MV Mugwump

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These are the times that try men's souls
In the course of our nation's history the people of Boston have rallied bravely whenever the rights of men have been threatened
Today a new crisis has arisen
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, better known as the M.T.A.
Is attempting to levy a burdensome tax on the population in the form of a subway fare increase
Citizens, hear me out, this could happen to you!

Well, let me tell you of the story of a man named Charlie
On a tragic and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family
Went to ride on the MTA

Well, did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned (what a pity)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned

Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square station
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him, "one more nickel"
Charlie couldn't get off of that train!

But did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned (poor old Charlie)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned

Now, all night long Charlie rides through the station
Crying, "what will become of me?
How can I afford to see my sister in Chelsea
Or my cousin in Roxbury?"

But did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned (shame and scandal)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned

Charlie's wife goes down to the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich
As the train comes rumbling through!

But did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned (he may ride forever)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned
Pick it Davey

Kinda hurts my figers

Now, you citizens of Boston, don't you think it's a scandal
How the people have to pay and pay?
Fight the fare increase, vote for George O'Brian
Get poor Charlie off the MTA!

Or else he'll never return
No he'll never return and his fate is still unlearned (just like Paul Revere)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned

He's the man who never returned
He's the man who never returned
Et tu, Charlie?

Songwriters: Bess Hawes / Jacqueline Steiner