#tombuchanan

Jay Gatsby: *born poor*

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” - J D Salinger

This is the 7 train. This is Queens. This is the outskirts of New York. This is where Tom Buchanan does his serious partying in The Great Gatsby away from the prying eyes of the moneyed class. This is where Archie Bunker spews his old world chauvinism. This is where I grew up.

College Point, Queens - New York is 15 miles from Wall St. This becomes important later in our story, so that is why I am bothering telling you so. (That is 24 km...I really must start using metric units. As an engineer I should understand metric units, but I don’t. Base 10 is great for math but I have no concept of how far 24 km is. 1 mile is 1.6 km, if you really want to know the truth.) 24 km is about an 15 minute car ride at 4 AM, but in the real world those 24 km meant a walk to the bus stop, a 10 minute wait, a 15 minute bus ride to Flushing (which is more Chinatown than Chinatown) and a 40 minute ride on the 7 train. Queens is where the immigrants live. A ride on the 7 train has more international relations than the United Nations. People from every country on the planet takes this train - The International Express.

But 24 km and an hour commute is a pain. I’ve never been colder than waiting for the bus in a New York winter.