No. 161 – Hear My Train A Comin’

Performer: Jimi Hendrix

Songwriter: Jimi Hendrix

Original Release: Woodstock 2

Year: 1971

Definitive Version: Blues, 1994.

This song for a long time was my mantra about Flint. “I gotta leave this town. Lord, I’ll never leave this town.” Now it’s my mantra when I leave work and I’m standing on the Metra platform at the Lake Cook station. Times change.

I write these entries a couple of days ahead, just in case something comes up that causes me to skip a day. When you read this, it’ll be the day after Christmas, so I apologize a bit for not being entirely time-appropriate, but this happened a couple of days ago, and it fits with the theme of waitin’ round the train station.

John, Laurie’s brother, who’s visiting for the holidays, came with me downtown to perform a shopping mission. We parked near the Belmont L station, and when we got on the platform, I was surprised a bit by how crowded the platform was. It didn’t bode well.

We were going out on what traditionally is the Biggest Shopping Day of the Year. The idea that it’s Black Friday is a bit of a misnomer. It’s almost always the last Saturday before Christmas. Visions of packed store aisles—and L trains—danced in my head.

Well, what are you going to do? L trains are packed. You push onward. So we waited for a few minutes, until I heard a guy holding his daughter say, “there it is.” I turned and I saw why the platform was packed. I turned to John and said, “Oh, dude! We’re gonna ride on the Santa Train!”

For those of you unfamiliar with the Santa Train—and that would be anyone who doesn’t live in Chicago—it’s a special train the CTA brings out during Christmastime and runs on every line once or twice in December. It’s called The Holiday Train, but as far as I can tell, only one holiday is represented, and it’s the one that features Santa Claus.

I call it the Santa Train, because that’s what it is. Santa rides on an open sleigh car in the middle of the train. The rest of the train cars are done up in blue with decorations and Christmas lights inside and out. Inside each car, they play carols done by the likes of Dean Martin, among others, and CTA employees pass out candy canes.

A few years ago, Scott and Shani brought Leah and John up to Chicago for a weekend, and one of the activities was the ride the Santa Train. Laurie and I met them downtown on the green line, which we took to the end of the line at Harlem. At the end of the line, Santa gets off his frozen sleigh and has a sit-down session at the station.

Well, when I Saw My Santa Train A Comin’, I knew John was in for a treat. But the train was so packed, I didn’t think we could fit. In fact, there were a lot of disappointed kids who were told by their parents that they wouldn’t be able to ride the Santa Train. The trick is to board it at the end of the line.

Well, John and I had a mission, and it wasn’t to ride the Santa Train. Instead, John and I got on a quickly departing—and almost-empty—regular red-line train. It was a much faster ride—going past similarly crowded stations, which were filled with similarly soon-to-be-disappointed riders.

Truth be told, this 49-year-old kid was a bit disappointed, too, that he didn’t get an unexpected ride on the Santa Train. Oh well, wait till next Christmas.