Wild Rover

C and I played hooky on Friday and went up to the Museum of Science.
The MBTA has finally figured out that their parking fare at the Quincy Adams garage, $3.50 per day, was the best deal in town. They've upped it to $7.
C spent the entire subway ride into Boston hopping up and down, first on the red line and then on the green. In perfect city form, the other riders didn't give him a second look.
I was gratified to see people still reading on the subway. I expected that everyone would be yaking on cell phones. They weren't, unfortunately, reading newspapers. The entire trip I saw only one Globe being read. There weren't even the usual tell-tale signs of newspapers on the trains, the ones that get folded up and abandoned on empty seats.
While we were waiting for a Lechmere train to take us to Science Park, I was approached twice by people looking for subway directions. Either I look like I know what I'm doing, or foreign tourists find mothers with young children approachable.
When I was in school I once suggested to my boyfriend that we take the train to Lechmere for the day. I assumed Lechmere was some borough of the city, like the North End. I didn't realize it was a department store until we got there. I was disappointed but it was cold so we went in anyway.
It's not even that anymore. Just an end-of-the-line subway stop with a cryptic name.
I was on the lookout for interesting subway characters, but it wasn't easy to people watch while fielding questions such as "what stop are we?" "what happens if I pull this emergency lever?" "why is it so dark?" "how can the conductor see?" what stop are we?" what's a Haymarket?" "what's at Government Center?" "where are all the pigeons?" "are there roads over us?" "what stop ARE we?" All I could come up with was a guy getting on at Park Street at 5:30 carrying eight plastic bags full of groceries on a rush-hour subway train. I hope he didn't have any eggs with him.
When I was a freshman my then 11-year old sister came to visit for the weekend. We went to the Children's Museum, Salem Witch Museum, and Museum of Science, seemingly all in one day. She fell asleep in the Omni Theater. C fared a little better. Even though he was tired (probably from his subway aerobics) he managed to stay awake and even ask a few questions (surprise!) through the 3PM showing of Roving Mars.
Roving Mars was great but, like all movies, it was spoiled, at least for me, by the ubiquitous litter scene. In the case of this film, the title characters (there are two Mars Rovers) are, themselves, litter.
Seems we can send a Rover to Mars, but we can't get it back home again.

song: Wild Rover • artist: Liam Himself