On this morning, at 8:15 MDT, when I entered my EPGY OHS Textual Analysis and Argumentation class, I greeted my teacher like any other day. Todays class discussion was Thoreau’s “On Walden Pond.” In his essay, he talks about how a Railroad runs just on the other side of the lake, and how, in the morning, he ‘waits for the early train like waiting for the sun to rise,’ how he walks to the village on the tracks, and how the train crews know him “like I was a track worker.” Thoreau shows very mixed feelings of the trains. I would highly recommend reading some off the internet. thoreau.eserver.org/walden05.html paragraph 9 on.
Anyway, my teacher put a famous Railroad painting from 1856 up on the screen so we could talk about the Railroad part. He knows that I like trains, so when he pointed to the Roundhouse, he said “I think thats a Roundhouse, John? Yes.” I posted yes on textchat, yes we have “txtcht” in class. So, I said yes, and moments later, I posted "The Roundhouse is run by the Hostler and his assistants. My teacher read the comment out loud and said, “Oh, yes, John, I was just about to say that myself.” and then he broke out laughing.
During the rest of the discussion, I incorporated every Railroad term I knew into my speech. Near the end, a fellow student posted in textchat “john, did u invent trains?” Ah, he has no idea what a compliment that was. With that, school doesnt look as bad as it was before.
I’ve walked and cross-country skied along those same tracks. I’ve ridden the train,too. It’s now MBTA commuter rail, the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg line into Boston.
People sometimes get the impression that Thoreau was some kind of daring back-to-nature guy who built his cabin in the woods and went to live far from civilization. The fact is, that cabin was located no more than a mile from his parents’ home and the busy little town of Concord, Massachusetts. My guess is, he could bring a sack of laundry home and get it done there if he felt like it, and if he got sick of dining on nuts and berries, he could go visit and have roast beef.
Yeah, I’ve seen a few trains there while hiking…in addition to the railroad, he’s less than a mile from Route 2 - or whatever path that used to be back when he was around!
My memories on reading Thoreau´s Walden in school are not to good - heavy stuff for a 14 year old in his third year of English. Our teacher went nuts, but there was no way for us to understand Thoreau´s poetry in what he wrote. Well, what do you expect from students who could not even express themselves properly in their own language? [}:)]
Talking of trains spreading to school - the school my son attended is just adjacent to a private branch line which was still in service while he was there. Each morning, classes ended abruptly when the train ran by, whistling like mad at each grade crossing. There are 8 of them … [:-^]
The line was closed 5 years ago, but will be reopened this year.
Sir Madog, I can beat your memories, Im a 13 year old kid in first year english, living in Provo Utah and attending school in Stanford CA. Huh, School is sucking up my time much more that it ever did.
No, Im in the Stanford Education Program for Gifted Youth, an international online high school system. I am one of 82 students around the world chosen to be in this system. One of my best friends in the program lives in Hong Kong. Anyway, with a schoolwide average of 10 hours of homework a day on Mon, Tue, Wed, and Thu, with 5-7 hours of homework on “weekends” [it runs on a college schedule of Mon -Thu] of Fri, Sat, and Sun, I rarely have any time to Model Railroad, Im lucky if I get 2 hours in a week!
No, Im in the Stanford Education Program for Gifted Youth, an international online high school system. I am one of 82 students around the world chosen to be in this system. One of my best friends in the program lives in Hong Kong. Anyway, with a schoolwide average of 10 hours of homework a day on Mon, Tue, Wed, and Thu, with 5-7 hours of homework on “weekends” [it runs on a college schedule of Mon -Thu] of Fri, Sat, and Sun, I rarely have any time to Model Railroad, Im lucky if I get 2 hours in a week!