Posted by:
caffiend
(
)
Date: February 08, 2019 08:56PM
For those too young or denizens west of the Berkshires, this is the ballad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kacASNARakQI'm old enough to remember paying the nickle upon debarking the train. Here's how it worked: you entered the system in the city (subway) tunnels, paying with a token. Three Green Line trolley branches climbed to street-level service, and you had to pay a 5-cent surcharge for that extra mileage. Not everybody paid--it was unenforceable.
"Charlie's wife goes down to the Sculley Square Station, at quarter past two,
And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich as the train comes rumbling through!"
Q-1: Why did she hand him a sandwich, instead of a nickle? Considering she had to pay a token to enter the station?
Q-2: Sculley Square (now "Government Center" was the down-and-out district--bars, cheap hotels, red light district, etc. What was his wife doing in Sculley Square?
I was just down at Boston City Hall, dubbed "the ugliest building in the country." (Google it.) I found two services I needed with "new, improved" fees. So typical of Taxachusetts: everytime you turn around, a fee, tax, fine or service has been raised.
Standard invitation to RfM-ers to look me up, should you come to Beantown. I'll buy you a Dunkin Donuts Coffee, and show you the sites!