The Shop On Hancock Street

There was this shop I was just talking about, Bowe Brothers Surface Grinding, located across the street from the main line of the New Haven Railroad. I could have stayed there all day, watching passenger trains at 60+mph, or freights at speeds up to 50. The tracks were busy, all four of them, and they were peak years.

There was a viaduct a few blocks away, under which pedestrians could safely cross the tracks. I guess you can see where I’m going with this.

A fair amount of people (those with a death wish or “it can’t happen to me” attitude) crossed the tracks as they pleased. I was never one of them; people may think I’m crazy from time to time, but they never have thought I’m dumb. Well, let me tell you about some guy who really was. Terminally dumb.

One day, the guys were busy in the shop when there was a flash of light -- something you’d expect at the Second Coming. Turned out not to be that, but some poor fool who wanted to cross the tracks when a freight had stopped. So he climbed up a car’s ladder and crawled across the top, too close to the 11,000-volt overhead wire.

They called the cops, ambulance, fire and priest; the latter said there wasn’t enough left to anoint for the Last Rites. “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,” as the poem goes, could do nothing but shovel up the remains. The guy knew what hit him on his way up to the Pearly Gates. More power to him, I say.