Vignettes of Poughkeepsie: Poughkeepsie Train Station, Wednesday, February 1, 5:00 a.m.
As I step out of my warm car, I am suddenly hit by the bitter cold of the early morning Poughkeepsie air. All around me are cars covered in snow from the night before. Salt covers the ground as I walk to the platform of the train station. There is an eerie silence to the typically bustling transportation hub.
All that can be heard is the low humming of the Metro North train waiting to leave the station on its way to Grand Central Station in New York City. Entering the waiting area to escape the cold I see very few people this early. No one speaks. Everyone in the station is like a zombie, half-asleep. As I look out the window toward platform three, the train begins to pull up for the passengers to board.
Looking across the parking lot from the middle of the platform, the lights on the Mid Hudson bridge seems to sparkle in the early morning darkness. Mahoney’s Irish Pub looks entirely different in this darkness; almost as if it were asleep like the rest of the city. I escape the bitter cold one more time as I alone enter into an empty train car and take my seat for the trek to work ahead of me.
