Category Archives: Overheard

Come On, _____

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Around town an on the internets a lot of people are saying, “Come on Irene.” This is a mondegreen of the 1982 song by Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen.” A mondegreen is a misheard lyric. I just wanted to point this out because as a fan of 1980’s music, I feel that a classic is being inartfully appropriated. Although “Eileen” and “Irene” are assonant (they resemble each others’ vowel sounds,) the two are not the same. That said, I’m hard pressed to come up with memorable songs with the word “Irene” in the title. So come on, Eileen; and America, get it right.

Fools and Samaritans

Last night I had the pleasure of taking the “drunk train” home. By this I’m referring to the D Riverside branch of the Green line… after 12 in the morning. During the small but crucial window between 11:30 and 12:30 (when the last train of the night departs,) the T’s finest emerge.

Our train pulls out of Kenmore and begins heading to Fenway. Suddenly the train comes to a very sharp stop. Since I’m sitting in the back, I can’t see what’s happening up front. But I notice that the front doors open, right there in the middle of the tunnel. So I’m assuming that the driver had to fix something on the track… however after we reach Fenway, and people begin to get off, I notice the driver exiting the trolley from the doors in the rear.

So from what I hear from other passengers, there was somebody walking in the tunnel! The driver, being a good person, decides to let him/them on her train rather than leave them to the mercy of the tunnel. So as she rushed out of the trolley, I can only assume she was chasing this guy. A minute later she returns… but offers not a word.

Okay, so it took a while for a D train to come along, but who in their right mind (or in their wrong mind) would think to walk down the dark tunnels of the oldest subway in America in the middle of the night!?!?

But there was a redeeming note to the trip. Those of you who are familiar with the green line trolleys (not the awful new ones) know that there are some single seats, and that two of these seats will be facing the rear of the train (the empty operator’s cab.) I guess when the driver was running through the trolley to catch the mysterious tunnel walker, she noticed a man passed out in that last single seat. So when we finally rolled into Reservoir, she gets up, comes back to the guy, and gently says, “hey buddy, where are you headed?” He replies in a semi-dazed way that he was going to Newton Center. She says ok and returns to the front of the trolley.

I was really touched by that. T operators, as I’ve found, are not in general the friendliest bunch. And rarely have I seen one go above and beyond their call of duty. Really the driver could have just ignored the guy and once the train got to Riverside just said, “sorry, you were the one who missed your stop.” It was a small gesture, but it was extremely touching.

So it’s not all chaos out there – random acts of kindness do still occur.

Getting Out

I was on the green line heading downtown when we pulled into longwood. A woman, who had obviously been waiting for one of the doors behind me, came scampering through the trolley shouting to the driver, “I have to get out!” She got out, and we all moved right along.