{"id":2625,"date":"2012-06-02T09:30:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T13:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2012-06-02T09:30:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-02T13:30:48","slug":"a-time-machine-named-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/history\/a-time-machine-named-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"A time machine named Bob"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A glimpse into a more gracious subway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The New York Subway is a place of endless fascination\u2026 its dark and noisy and hot (or freezing cold). In a single journey, I can hear half a dozen languages spoken, converse with a man in a gorilla suit, listen to a remarkably good (or bad) busker and be tempted to buy anything from a new pair of shoes to a plane ticket.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, in a disused subway station in deepest, darkest Brooklyn, I met a time machine named Bob..<\/p>\n

It happened during a visit to the NY Transit museum<\/a>. I’m a big fan of museums \u2013 they tell us so much about ourselves. And this one is no exception.<\/p>\n

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Seems familiar - some things have not changed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some space is devoted to buses \u2013 but mostly it’s all about the history of the subway.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0disused station is still connected to the current subway \u2013 and parked along the platform were carriages dating back to the time when riding on the subway was an adventure, not a daily commute.<\/p>\n

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The carriage doors are open so Sadie can go where she likes. She looks extremely content and well fed - and I don't think it's from catching mice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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There’s only one regular passenger on these carriages now \u2013 a\u00a0chubby and friendly\u00a0grey cat named Sadie\u2026 who guards the secure carriage that was used to transport money.<\/p>\n

Well\u2026 when I say guard, I really mean sleeps inside.<\/p>\n

I digress \u2013 cats have that effect on me.<\/p>\n

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Webmaster John, having trainspotting tendencies, was happily investigating engine bits and points and things. I was busy reading the advertising inside the train. From soap to beer, cars to jobs \u2013 those ads were a snapshot of daily life from different eras.<\/p>\n

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I'm sure my Dad had a car like this many moons ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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For those hot New York summers...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Aimed at female subway riders... when our roles in the home were a little different<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We usually don’t take guided tours \u2013 but I found myself drawn into one. How could I resist when the guide’s talk was peppered with things like\u2026 “As I recall, back then\u2026.” And “As a kid, I used to watch\u2026”<\/p>\n

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Bob shares his memories with us<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bob wasn’t reciting some prepared spiel\u2026 he was remembering. A\u00a0retired NYC cop, Bob spent some time riding the subways, before they had dedicated transit police.\u00a0 Before that he was a kid \u2013 and kids just love trains. Especially back then, before smart phones and video games and TVs, when families didn\u2019t have one car, far less two and kids made their own fun.<\/p>\n

Seeing the ultra-violet lights that were supposed to\u00a0kill germs on the train was great \u2013 but hearing Bob talk about the weird purple glow in the windows was even better.<\/p>\n

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Bob had a some ‘unoffical’ stories too – like how enthuiasts hid carriages inside disused tunnels instead of destroying them as ordered – because they knew one day there might be a museum that needed them.<\/p>\n

There are times I wish I wrote historical novels.\u00a0Just think what fun it would be to sit down with someone like Bob and listen to him talk about his childhood. Imagine the pictures he could paint of a time long gone.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the tour Bob \u2013 and for the memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The New York Subway is a place of endless fascination\u2026 its dark and noisy and hot (or freezing cold). In a single journey, I can hear half a dozen languages spoken,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-my-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}