Attendant

 

We love to eat.

No matter where we go, we got to eat.

I was listening to a story of a ‘flight attendant’ and what she experienced on her flights. I could sympathize with her for I too, was an attendant.

Not on an airplane or a boat or even in a restaurant. (The wait people who take our orders, fill our drinks, deliver our meals, clear the plates, present our bills and bring us change are attending to us).

I was an attendant on the railroad.

Before there was all that fancy dining cars on short trips from here to there, you got to you seat, rolled up the window, lit a cigarette and watched the world go by. Like any public transportation, once you were aboard you were out of control. The train went where the tracks lead and could only go faster or slower. A passenger was an astronaut into the unknown. Perhaps read a book on the bumpy ride? Maybe take a nap?

What better to do when there is no lap top computers or Wi-Fi or cell phones or on-board television or even air-conditioning, than to eat?

My job was to load an aluminum gurney with pre-wrapped stale sandwiches, bags of chips and cans of cola and a semi-warm coffee urn to meet the train at the platform as passengers parted and de-parted offering them substances from their long ride. It was all a cash deal.

The worst part were the troop trains taking recruits to Camp Lejeune. They were excited about a big adventure. Would throw them sandwich through the windows and charge them $5 for a half pack of cigarettes as the train was pulling out. Saw too many of them coming back in boxes.

Sometimes I’d be assigned to work the train.

Pack up my load of ‘food’ you can only buy in vending machines, lift it up to the end of the car and wait for the train to take off. After a few minutes of getting my ‘sea legs’ I’d open the door and push my wanton pleasures down the aisle.

It is amazing what people will pay for questionable quality with only one bathroom?

On the return trip whatever was leftovers. I could park the cart on the last car and hang out in the caboose with the ‘real’ railroad guys.

I did get to ride the rails for free and learn about social science and psychology.

I was a ‘railroad attendant’.