One Track Mind

I was thinking today .. what if my parents had of poured tons of effort into me to teach me social skills and physical skills, etc. .. would that have made any difference with me? I don't think it would have ... I arrived hard wired the way I was and I was so living inside my head versus the 'real world' that I don't think any effort in that regard would have changed a thing .. constant sarcasm, bickering and physical criticism aside. Maybe they tried harder than I give them credit for .. but ...

My world was my bedroom .. and in my head .. and the books I read .. and the music I listened to .. and the TV I watched .. and sounds of the urban environment that I heard in the warmer months when the windows were open. Living where we were ... we were exposed to the sounds of what was probably the redneck and blue collar heart of the city.

The horn blasts from the Digby Ferry that ran twice a day during the summer ... the fog horn on Partridge Island .. which operated just about every night night as the warm moist air moving up the coast from Maine condensed producing some of the thickest fog outside of London .. go inland 5 minutes .. and  the temperature was 10C higher ... and skies clear .. the sounds of trains on the tracks and their whistles as they assembled the box cars for movement in and out of the city .. the sound of the waves at Bay Shore .. the wind had to be just right .. but when it was you could hear the surf pounding .. and I swear on some nights .. you could feel it as the house seemed to vibrate ...

Bernard Lundy gave me a Lionel Train set .. it had a small set of track and a transformer that when you moved the the larger the top lever ...  energized the track and the train would circle around ... I can still smell the transformer and the train as it circled ... a mixture of oil and ozone I guess ... I could watch it for hours .. I remember the old man taking me to see a train down by the roundhouse ... we might even have rode on it ... there is a vague image of a caboose ... 

I worked on the Digby Ferry for two summers ... and my fascination with the ocean .. boats ... with trains .. never died .. and I think that is why there are so many movies, books and great songs about them .. it is the same for us all ... it seems when we need shelter from the storm ... that is our happy place ... both can take us far away to places where life is as we dream it should be ... 


Phil (2 January 2021 - San Patricio de Melaque - 8:09 PM)


Krome Koan - 'It's been lovely but I have to scream now'





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