what counts as our community?

8 March 2008
Yesterday evening as I was coming home on the train, there was a young man in my car wearing tiger striped hunting camo and a boonie cap. When we pulled out of Point of Rocks, he asked the car if the next stop was Brunswick, which it was. He then got up and got ready to disembark, a bit prematurely, as it takes almost 20 minutes to get from Point of Rocks to Brunswick, pulling a large matching camo pattern equipment bag from the overhead storage rack. It was startling large within the confines of the train compartment, and he was right in front of my face as he finished this task, so I asked him what it was. A snowboard. He related that he had just come in today from Colorado to BWI, and sat back down. This was apparently enough interest to spark his conversation and he related that he was travelling to Keedyville, which is just up route 67 from Brunswick. I asked more questions; how are you getting there? I was thinking of taking a cab. This is a tall order in Brunswick, everything is closed at the hour we are arriving this day. Or getting a ride from my sister. Does she know you’re coming? No, I’ll have to call her. But my phone broke on the slopes yesterday. Is there a payphone at the trainstation? A few others spoke up and described where to find the phone on the platform, and warned him that it was out in the weather- which was raining relatively heavily. I put my hand on my phone in my pocket. How are you paying for the call? Um… A lady started going through her purse. I handed him my phone, with the comment that it’s all the same cost on a cell phone. He revealed that his sister had Verizon, which made the phone call free. His sister was surprised to get the call, he thought she would be done with work already. I had to remind him to tell her that he didn’t have a phone she could call him back at. He gave the phone back, and I asked him how he’d gotten from BWI to the Brunswick MARC train; he told me he’d taken the Penn line. So, from Colorado to BWI, then via the Penn Line to Union Station to Brunswick via MARC, and then a vague plan for getting to Keedyville. He’d had a long day. I told him the train station was warm, and would be open all night while he waited.