by Kezza67
...of what we have lost thanks to the shift from a labor-intensive economy to a capital-intensive economy, to the insatiable desire for convenience that fed the hegemony of the automobile, to the insistence of stockholders that short-term gains justify any measures no matter how inimical they might be to long-term stability.
Your detailed & thorough account of the old railway system is mind boggling.
Its obvious that you have been lucky enough to have been a part of this fascinating world.
The story has already entered the classic territory through your wonderful writing.
Sorority Party 1955. I just finished this story. It's a nice combination of sex and other aspects of. It probably spoke to me more than it would to many others---I graduated from college in 1969, and many parts of the story rang true to me---not everyone had a car, guys stayed in rooming houses, and a few guys fell in love with women at all-women's colleges, and there was lot of traveling involved. And the sex in the story is ok. (one big--ok, maybe huge difference between that era and my era--the Pill--ie,birth control pills )
Many of what we call Classic Novels today were originally published, chapter by chapter in Newspapers.
And just kindly or harshly critiqued in the Letters to the Editor.
I pointed to the Moby Dick analogy in a previous post with the railroad substituting for the whaling ships... The descriptive writing reminds of Thackeray and Melville..
Really fine work.
This series is one of the greatest pieces of literature on this site. Ok there's 'no wham bam thank you mam' and a lot of historical content but the writing, well what can I say; its depth and character makes you feel as if you were there.
This chapter would have been interesting if the writer had discussed the relationship between his daughter instead of the railway.