Homeless in Hartford

December, 1977-another routine trip. My paperwork said to deliver this truck to New Haven. I knew that I would be going on to Hartford, but I also knew that if I went straight there, the New Haven truck rental place would in fact be open and ready to accept trucks. Best to try New Haven first. Five hours up the I-95/Turnpike corridor, including the Connecticut Turnpike, which in 1977 included, at no extra cost, stopping for a ten cent toll every five miles or so.

The New Haven truck rental place was indeed not open yet. Back to I-95 and up I-91. It was getting dark and starting to snow as I arrived at the place in Hartford. I got my truck delivered and signed for, took a city bus to the Amtrak station, and found that I was way short for train fare to Baltimore. I called Ted, but his wife answered the phone. I described the situation to her. She promised to alert Ted as soon as she heard from him. I hung out at the train station, waiting for the pay phone to ring. Ah, how much simpler this all would have been ten years later with cellular phones.

The phone finally rang. Ted was driving up to the Baltimore Amtrak station to pay for my ticket home. Yay. The bad news: the last train south was leaving soon. I allowed enough time for the deed to be done, and went to the ticket counter. "There should be a prepaid ticket to Baltimore for me." The agent checked. "There is a ticket to Baltimore here, for James Henderson. Is that you?" "Well, it's probably for me, but My name is Emerson, not Henderson." "Unless you have identification in the name of Henderson, it's not for you." Hmmm. By the time I was able to get Ted back on the phone, the last train south was gone. Ted said, "Do you have enough money to get you to New York City?" I ascertained that I did. "I'll get you a ticket from there first thing in the morning. Great.

The next bad news: after the last train to anywhere was gone, they closed the station and tossed my sorry ass out into the cold, windy snow storm. I crossed the street to a diner. Being careful not to spend past my ticket to NYC, I had a meager dinner, nursing my coffee cup until I was thrown out of there. After 11:00 in Hartford, I found out, the homeless people congregated in a nice, warm all night-laundromat. The chairs were all taken by the time I got there. I wandered around inside, occasionally staring wistfully across the street to the train station. Time passes slowly when you're standing around in a laundromat in the wee hours.

The snow stopped some time in the night, the wind died, and lo and behold, I saw the lights come on in the train station. I ran gleefully across the street, bought my ticket, and was through being Homeless in Hartford. I slept most of the way to New York, picked up my ticket and slept most of the way to Baltimore. It was near noon when I arrived. I took buses to the Duralite yard, turned in my paperwork, and was given a delivery to Richmond. No rest for the weary.