Ship's Manifest

The rear of the train has been the place to be this school-holiday week. The two weeks prior (the last in March and first in April) the train was over crowded, with many standing and all seats taken by Newark or, certainly, Secaucus. But now it's out-of-school week, families are off on holiday and the passenger manifest has dwindled somewhat. You see it and feel it when the 8:48 pulls in from Chatham and Madison and points west. There's more air, and sometimes an entire 3-seat bench is empty in the rear car. This leads me up different stairs -- original Penn Station (1910-1963), with brass railing -- to the Queens-bound E each day, at the 8th Avenue end, instead of the more usual 1-2-3/N-R at the 7th Ave. side.