On Sunday I began my two day train ride to Austin, TX by way of Chicago. Despite the food (for $12.50 I was served a small mushroom and pasta dinner that was almost entirely defrosted) and the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, the rail is quickly becoming my favorite form of long-distance solo travel. In addition to the freedom of movement that planes lack, I love watching the scenery and passengers change gradually. Being so accustomed to the hills and mountains of New England and the twisted cluster of streets and apartments of Boston makes it easy to forget just how big and flat the rest of the country is; it's wonderful to watch that transformation over the space of two days.
The train staff switched off every eight hours too, so I got to listen to the announcements change with the regions. For example, during the 16 hour ride from NYC to Chicago, we were addressed as "Amtrak passengers" and told which stops the train was staying at long enough for people to get out and stretch their legs. During the 26 hour ride from Chicago to Austin, we were addressed as "ladies and gents" and told when each "smoke break" would be. That section of the ride was also the only time passengers were instructed to keep their shoes on at all times.
Just waking up in Arkansas after spending two nights on the train.
I'm not sure if my view from the rail provided me with an accurate representation of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas (three states I've spent no or next-to-no time in), but I was struck by the amount of impoverished cities and towns we passed by. I mean, trailers are one thing, but I didn't realize that there were so many people with homes made out of sheet metal living in the First World. Some of the neighborhoods of Arkansas reminded me of the slums I've seen in documentaries about Nairobi, Kenya.
The scenery changed dramatically again once we crossed from Arkansas into Texas. Even though many of the small cities we passed were just as poor as the ones in Arkansas, the land between those cities was beautiful. The landscape in northern Texas was dominated by ranges and huge open fields, the expansiveness of which were accentuated by the bright blue cloudless sky. I swear, I've never seen so many damn horses in my life.
I arrived in Austin, TX at 6:45pm on Tuesday March 9th, but that's a story for my next post.
The house I worked on in MS two summers ago was a rusting thing that had originally been a trailer, and which had been the family home for three generations, with various additions added by way of plywood, sheet metal, and cinder blocks over the years. It had been completely flooded duing Katrina and not lived in for the three years since, when a relative kicked the family of 6 out from the aunt-owned apartment they shared with one set of grandparents. They ripped out all the molding bits, and pieced it back together with more plywood, sheet metal, and whatever building scraps the dump-truck-driver husband was able to scavenge from work. This, sadly, was not an uncommon state of affairs, and the home had not been what I would consider livable even before any flooding and three years of molding and mildewing.
ReplyDeleteI read this before but didn't have time to comment.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things we learn about in library school is the digital divide and also that there's a lot of poverty that we have no clue about (especially living somewhere like Massachusetts; we take better care of our homeless than some other states - NH for example). Anyway, Mississippi has a reputation for not having the resources to focus on education. I've been reading about Alabama's attempts to keep the successful people local and build up their state. Arkansas has a range - Little Rock can be really nice in some places and really awful in others.