Red, White, & Blue. And yes, stress too.

Sorry the title sounds a little bit corny. I have a splitting headache, so I am not sure how much I will be able to write at this time. I just returned from a day of walking. I wanted to relax in the bathtub, but if I didn’t start writing my blog, I would start forgetting some of the things that I wanted to write about.

My outside adventure began around 11am. I walked from my home to the bank (to withdraw some money); that is about a 10 city block walk. From the bank I went to the internet shop, to send the prewritten e-mails that I’ve been holding for the last few days. From the shop I was ready to take a train ride down to the World Trade Center site. However, before I went, I decided to make use of the bathroom in the Pathmark store. Here in the US, there are not many public bathrooms available, so you have to go when you can.

The train ride was uneventful going downtown. I got off the train at bowling green which is near the very tip of Manhattan Island. I wandered around Castle Clinton (the Statue of Liberty ticket office), I also walked around the park area. One of the photos I took was of the Korean War Memorial (located in the park). The line to ride the ferry to the statue of Liberty was at least a couple of hours waiting time. There was some kind of festival, but I did not stay to find out more. Here in New York, the weather was very nice, very good day to go walking. I walked from the tip of Manhattan along the Battery Park Promenade to the World Trade Center site.

Since it was such a beautiful day in terms of the weather, I ended up walking passed the WTC site. Also, it has been so long since I’ve been there that I’d forgotten its location. As I walked around the perimeter of the WTC site, I couldn’t help get the feeling that people were more interested in the collapsing of the Twin Towers than the people who died. I could be wrong. Most of the information was about the marvelous engineering of the buildings, and the history of the buildings, and a list of the dead people. Unfortunately, being at “ground zero” didn’t move me the way it should have. Sorry! It just seemed very “touristy”. There were a couple of guys (whispering [not shouting]) trying to sell photo-postcards of the planes hitting the buildings, but the people around just seemed to ignore them. Anyway, I took a few photos. Since I was alone, I am not in most of the photos. I asked a couple of people along the way to take my photo. I will either attach the photos to this blog, or I’ll attach them to my other web site (which is long, long, long overdue for an update).

After walking around the “ground zero” perimeter, I went to the PATH (the Port Authority of NY & NJ) station. My plan was to go to a shopping mall in Jersey City. In the station, the first thing I notice was how the station was very spacious (on the upper level) with not a lot of people in the station. I also noticed that there were no station attendants around; everything was automated. First, I went to the row of ticket gates on the North (!?!?) side. There was a little bit of confusion at the ticket machine, it wasn’t taking the money. Also at this moment, I couldn’t find the single ticket machine. Again, there were no station attendants around, only people complaining. Therefore, I decided to go to the opposite end of the station – South (?!?!) where there were almost no people. Without the people around, I was able to concentrate a little more. Apparently, the PATH system doesn’t have single tickets, so I purchased a two day pass – It cost the same as a round trip ticket. Please don’t ask me to explain.

*I later found out there were two single trip machines (one on the North!? and one on the South side of the station).All the rest of the turnstiles were for passes. About 10 turnstiles at each side of the station.

With my round trip ticket in hand, I walked over to the turnstile and inserted my ticket. And….the turnstile did not let me through. In Japan, you insert your ticket, walk through the turnstile, and pick up the ticket at the other end. I thought the system would be basically the same. I was wrong. When I couldn’t walk through, I stepped back and reinserted my ticket. This time the turnstile flashed green, so I walked through. But…..it did not return my roundtrip ticket! I looked around and again, there was no station attendant. Finally, after about 5 minutes, a guy in a blue shirt walked through the service turnstile which told me he was some kind of station employee. I waved to him (motioning him to come), but he ignored me. So, I started to shout, “help, help, could I have some help please”. He shouted to me, “no, no look for the red shirt.” At this time, I am afraid to leave the turnstile, because I wanted the machine to be untouched when the station attendant looks at it. In Japan, if there is a problem. The station attendant pops open the turnstile pulls out the ticket, refunds the money, and apologizes profusely. For some strange reason, I was expecting the same. I waited about 5 or 10 minutes more, when more blue shirts (one man and one woman) walked….or should I say strolled past me. I explain my situation. The man said nothing, however, the woman points to the phone which is about 3 or 4 turnstiles away. She shouts (she also does not want to come near me) for me the use the phone. I shout back explaining about not wanting anyone to use the machine. She shrugs and keeps on walking. After a few more minutes of waiting, I decide to risk a phone call. While I am on the phone, I have to shout a couple of times to people to not use the turnstile (the one with my roundtrip ticket inside).

I am trying to put you (the reader) into the experience, but with my poor writing skills, it is not working(this blog is turning out to be very long). I forgot to mention that while I am standing at the turnstile, several, I do mean several people are also having various kinds of problems with the machines or the turnstiles, most just seemed to accept the problem or forget about their difficult and walking through. One guy is shouting and cursing about how the machines are worthless junk. All of this is telling me that the machine problems are not rare. Today was my first time there in about 10 years, I felt like a foreigner in a strange country.

Anyway, after more time passes, finally I see a young woman in a red shirt kind of looking at me, but she also doesn’t want to approach me. Unfortunately, at this time, another guy next to me just loses his ticket in the machine (identical situation). While I am beckoning for her to come over shouting, “Yes, I am the one that call. I am the one who called”; I am trying to out shout the guy who is now complaining about losing his ticket. The young attendant explains that when the turnstile flashes green and says enter, you can go through the turnstile. Also there is a time limit, so if you delay walking through the turnstile will not let you in.

You might be asking, what color is the turnstile when it is not flashing green? The answer…………green. Is that stupid or what?

After the attendant waved the other guy through, I explained that I paid $3.00 (US). If I went through the gate, I would still have to pay again for the return trip. The young lady tells me:
The machine can’t be opened up
I can’t receive a refund.
Nothing can be done about the ticket

I am getting angrier and angrier. She is acting like this has never happened before. While she is talking to me, two other people are having problems, and one lady who can’t get change for a $20 dollar bill because she said that the machine won’t take her $20. The young station attendant tells me that I should step away from the turnstile and stand near the wall or she motions to another area by the ticket machines. She says that there is nothing she can do unless she sees the problem happen with her own eyes. But, how many people are going to go through the machine and stupidly put the same ticket in twice. I refused to moved, so…………….

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She calls the PATH police. At the time, I thought she was talking to her superiors. However, moments later, about 4 or 5 police officers come to the ticket gate. About 3 officers approach me; the others kind of linger in the background. The tall one seems to be the one in charge. I explain…again…my situation. And he asks me what I wanted.

To be honest, I really did not know what I wanted. I felt like I was in a strange situation where everyone around me seemed to be unfamiliar with this kind of situation, and they were looking to me to have a solution. I really did not know what to do. If someone had come to me (soon) and said something like “sorry, the boss is not here, you’ll have to wait about 30 minutes”, I probably would have said, forget it and just accepted losing the $1.50. But the longer they kept me waiting, the more I kept expecting (or hoping?!?!) someone would come and address the problem. But they treated me like I was being unreasonable.

After the officer explained that the machine could not be opened to check for the ticket, and that it was only $1.50. I took this to mean that I was supposed to do what the other people were doing, cursing the machines, or losing the fare. The officer also said that a refund was also impossible because “information would have to be filled out”. So again, he asked what I wanted. I just said anything. Anything! I just did not want my (now) 30 minutes to have been in vain. Then the officer suggested….

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A refund!!! But he said that I would have to fill out a refund card. I said I didn’t care. I yanked out a pen from my pocket waving it saying, “here I have a pen, just give me something to write on”. With that, the young lady attendant opens the pouch on her waist and pulls out…… a handful of yellow index cards, and asks me to fill one out. The actual title of the index card was “PATH Replacement Ticket”. She signs the ticket receipt and tears off my copy and hands it to me. I hand something back to her. She said, “What’s that”. I said, “It is an extra receipt. You gave me two”. She laughs and said, “oh”.

I just realize that I have to take a picture of the ticket as my proof of having visited the Twilight Zone.

It’s getting late….”Red, White & Blue” to be continued….