June 10, 2008: Early Morning Heat
Story and Photo By Joe Zlomek
The strangers stood Tuesday (June 20, 2008) 50 feet above the ground, on a platform at the Norristown PA Transportation Center, waiting for a light rail train that would take them towards Philadelphia. He was a barrel-chested middle-aged man, with a jowly face and ruddy complexion, who wore a plain off-white T-shirt outside his knee-length shorts. She was a younger woman, though maybe not by much, dressed in a pink blouse and tan slacks. What they shared in common, besides the train, was an opinion about the weather.
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| A flock of birds skim the cool water of the Atlantic Ocean as it
washes a beach in Avalon NJ. 2008-03-22. |
"Hot," he said, addressing her nearby. "Too hot. It's not even 7:30 in the morning and it's too hot to be outside."
"It was so hot yesterday," she replied, "that, where I work, they handed out bottles of water to people at their desks. 'Drink a lot,' they said. And sweat. If you stop sweating, they said, call somebody."
"That's a pretty considerate employer," the man added. "Sounds like they have your welfare at heart."
"Yeah," she agreed, "Home Depot's pretty good like that. They put coolers of water bottles out for everybody, especially the cashiers and the guys working in the garden shop. They suffer from the heat the most."
The train came. Its doors opened, and the two passengers -- now slightly less than strangers -- stepped into the car.
It was air conditioned.
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