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13 April 2022
Tags: Music
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A Train Ride All the Way to Florida

It was Easter week 1993, and somehow Suzie and I found ourselves on a train from New York to Florida for a questionable visit to Disneyworld. That two teenagers at the height of their cynicism and moodiness should be taking an overnight train ride to Florida, and the purported happiest place on earth, is the height of improbability, if not downright foolishness, but there we were. 

Sweetheart
The sun has set
All red and primitive above our heads
Blood stained on an ageless sky
Wipe your tears and let the salt stains dry
Let them all run dry
All run dry

Suzie is the ideal traveling companion for me, as she and I know each other very well. Most importantly, we know when to leave the other alone, which is really the key to any successful relationship or friendship. Thankfully there would be just one or two moments when we needed that alone time – the rest of the time we were helping each other though such a trip at that particular point in our teenage lives. Nowhere was that more evident than on the long-ass train ride, which forms the memory of this post. The aural backdrop playing on my headphones was Annie Lennox’s brilliant ‘Diva’ album (which just celebrated its 30th anniversary, so that’s how far back we are going here). The track ‘Primitive’ soothed the gentle rumble of the train as the middle of the night arrived and our car flickered with only an occasional night-light. Outside, the amber lights of the tracks whizzed by overhead. It was a moment in time stilled by this song. 

Sweetheart
Take me to bed
That’s where all our prayers are said
Whispered silent in the night
That’s how all our dreams take flight
Let them all go by
All go by
At that moment, I think both Suzie and I wanted to be just about anywhere else, and nowhere else at the same time. The agitated conundrum of a typical teenager, when nothing felt typical or normal. We sat across from each other, back in those days when there was space between seats, when people weren’t all crammed uncomfortably on top of each other. At such a young age, I could have slept anywhere, but even with that ease and luxury, my sleep on that ride was less than ideal. We passed the time talking and listening to music, and I did a lot of writing for a project I was working on for English class. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that project would be the first of many. 
For time will catch us in both hands
To blow away like grains of sand
Ashes to ashes rust to rust
This is what becomes of us
As our train rolled through the night, amid fits of sleep and wake, we seemed to be leaving the cold gray world of upstate New York in April as the outside grew greener and more temperate. When morning arrived, the landscape was already different than when we had left, and I felt different too. It was a rare realization of change as it was in the process of happening. I wouldn’t get many of those moments, so I leaned into it, wondering what it meant, wondering what was in store for us. 
Sweetheart
Send me to sleep
Pray to God our hopes to keep
Take our fears and make us strong
Lead us to where we belong
And let it all go by
All go by
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