There is absolutely no reason for me to be on Shelbourne St. in the year 2026, so you probably won't get a picture of the block I grew up on, nor a closer view of the field (known to us kids as "The Field") at the end of that block, during this photo blog project. I'm trying to accurately depict my comings and goings, and not go out of my way just to photograph something I wouldn't be seeing anyway.
But I have been traveling to and fro' on these train tracks this summer, seeing as it's too hot and my car doesn't have air conditioning and it's just not worth driving all the way to Fern Rock and letting the car roast in the sun for eight hours then driving home while burning my hands on the steering wheel. Back to that Regional Rail life.
It's been approximately 5896 days since Pam and I first traveled on this train together, me headed home from her Center City apartment for maybe the fifth time and she meeting her dad to get a ride to her grandmom's, who lived around the corner from the station. She told me that we had to pretend we didn't know each other once disembarked from the train, so her dad didn't ask questions and roast her during the family gathering she was walking into all hungover. It's funny to think that this is the first time I ever saw my future father-in-law, from the window of a train, out of the corner of my eye as I looked away into the middle distance.
She thought I was joking when I started pointing out all the places in this neighborhood, specifically along this very train route. She assumed I was fucking around, which, true, I very often do. But people give me way too much credit when they think I'm making shit up. I don't have the comedic capacity to riff like that and pull shit out of nothing. Yes, Pam, that really is where I went to grade school, that really is where I had my first kiss, that really is the Field that was at the end of my block and the end of your Uncle Ed's block too, where the two blocks met at a perpendicular angle, at the Field. Maybe this wasn't the first time I've ever seen your dad. Maybe you guys were getting out of your car for a previous family gathering at your cousin Rachel's Confirmation party and me and my pals were playing roller hockey 100 feet away.
But I didn't even own a camera then, let alone take any pictures of such likely scenarios, let alone have a blog onto which I crudely pasted photos of my life with paltry thoughts for each. I cannot document what happened long ago or far away. I can only document the here and now. Here, now, I am taking the train home from a long day at work, and I'm briefly spotting the Field in the distance.
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