{"id":2723,"date":"2013-06-07T07:15:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T11:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2013-06-06T22:22:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T02:22:38","slug":"south-station-summer-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/south-station-summer-1978\/","title":{"rendered":"South Station, Summer 1978."},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How I Spent My Summer Vacation.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Other kids would get assignments along the lines of: \u201cWrite a 500 word essay on how you spent your summer vacation.\u201d I always wished for something like that. In 7th<\/sup> grade this would have read:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live on a boring road where nothing ever happens, so to keep me from driving my mother crazy, my father took me to Boston at least one day a week. My dad works near Harvard Square in a bright office with lots of computers. (That\u2019s actually in Cambridge, not really Boston.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first week he show me how to use the computer terminal and I played a game called \u2018R Adventure\u2019. The second week he showed me how to write a short program (that\u2019s a bunch of lines and letters that tells the computer what to do). I wrote a program with a sneaky line called an \u2018infinite loop\u2019. This tells the computer to repeat the same line again and again. That was neat. I wrote \u2018Brian Likes Trains.\u2019 And this scrolled slowly over the CRT (that\u2019s the computer screen that looks something like a TV but with green letters.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI figured I\u2019d improve my program, so I added an exponent. When I ran the program the next time, the screen filled with \u2018Brian Likes Trains\u2019 faster and faster, soon the whole screen was rolling. Then it suddenly stopped. Actually the whole computer stopped. All the computers in the room stopped!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA graduate student came in and spoke to my dad. Then my dad gave me a dollar and told me to go ride the subway or something. So I rode around and came back when it was time to drive back to Monson. Writing that program was like magic. Every time after that, my dad would give me a dollar and I\u2019d ride around with my camera taking pictures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy August, I\u2019d been on all the subway lines. So I went to the railroad station. South Station is a great place, it\u2019s where they keep all the Budd Cars. Those are great because the engineers who run them let you ride up front and don\u2019t charge you to ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"This
<\/span><\/a><\/span> This is South Station, that’s where you can see the Budd Cars.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Budd cars go all over the place, but if you\u2019re not careful you might not get back by the time to go home, so it\u2019s really<\/i> important to get a schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad sometimes gave me his \u2018SUPER WIDE ANGLE lens\u2019. This is much better than my \u2018Normal\u2019 lens because its comes with a viewfinder which is an extra part you put on top of the camera that helps you to see pictures. With my normal lens, you have to look through a little hole, and that makes it harder to find good pictures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe also gave me a light meter to measure the light and set the camera. I made lots of pictures. This is one of my favorite because it shows the Budd Cars and the old signals at South Station. I had to walk all the way from the subway stop to the parking lot to make this picture and it was really hot outside.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow summer\u2019s over, and I can\u2019t ride around on the subway or Budd Cars until next year. I hate school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h6>\n