I grew up on Long Island (the one in New York, not the one on Winnipesaukee). My father commuted daily by train to Manhattan. In my childhood, Dad was always racing – or waiting – for a train. Later, I did some rail commuting in New York and Chicago.
Commuting by train can be exhausting. You wait or you race. You stand on crowded platforms in all kinds of wind and weather. On the train, you get stuck standing next to the guy who is wearing the aftershave from Hell or one who hasn’t made contact with a bar of soap since Tuesday. You might snag a seat; you might get some work done. But back when my father was commuting, when Joe Biden was commuting, there was no way to guarantee you wouldn’t get stuck in the gray cloud of the smoking car or seated next to a talker. No one wore headsets back then.
Dad was in advertising but Joe Biden was in the Senate. No doubt, Joe was frequently button-holed by constituents on Amtrak, something Dad never encountered on the LIRR. So I’m guessing that Joe’s four commuting hours every workday were an exhausting labor of love. All those years.
But he did it for his family. Just as Joe was there for his motherless kids every single day all those years, when he is in the White House, Joe Biden will be there for us.
Every.
Single.
Day.
DEBORAH McBEE
Tilton