Going To Visit The Locomotive

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Last Sunday, Marianne and Sean and I went to see Big Boy, which has been receiving enormous attention and tremendous crowds at every stop of its coast-to-coast trip.

It would take great verbal labor to do justice to this gorgeous machine. So let's just say big and beautiful.

The locomotive was on display at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and I have to say: Kudos to everyone involved in handling traffic. An enormous number of people showed up to see it. So many, I couldn't help thinking of Robert Stone's dictat (from Mao II) that "The future belongs to crowds." Yet they kept the flow going smoothly and without complication.

The interesting thing about the crowd was how amiable everybody was. They were all, it seems, in the mood to do something fun and celebrational that was attached to no particular political stance.

Also, and I realize that Philadelphia being a deep-blue union kind of town was a factor here, but it still surprised me... There was not a MAGA hat to be seen. Not one.

And while I was there, I learned . . .

The Big Boy locomotive was built in Schenectady, NY. Like me!

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