Three minutes earlier...

...and I would have missed the whole show! Well, at least I would have missed Act II of the show. Here's my saga:

I was headed to the Phillies game and was alerted by the friend I was meeting that the Villanova/Temple football game would be going on at the same time across the street from the Phillies ball park. (By the way, AWESOME timing for the Inaugural Mayor's Cup, Mr. Nutter!) So it seemed clear that traffic would be hellacious - also consider that MANY schools were off the next day for a four-day Labor Day weekend, so the usual shore traffic would get started earlier. Seemed a recipe for sitting in the car being frustrated. So I decided I'd use public transportation.

Now, for those of you who don't know where I live, it's about 30 miles west of the city. The ballpark and stadium are in the far south part of Philadelphia. So I had to take the regional rail into the city - takes about 50 minutes - then walk the equivalent of about two blocks through the train station to the subway. The subway ride is about ten minutes. Once you get off the subway, you are about a block and a half from the park. Not bad, under normal circumstances.

I drove to the train station and got a nice parking spot recently vacated by a commuter, bought my ticket (off-peak!) and settled onto the train. A few stops later, I realized we were at the VILLANOVA station, and, I swear to you, 300-400 kids (99% of whom had navy t-shirts with V on the front and "Nova Nation" on the back) got on the train. It suddenly occurred to me that we would get to Suburban Station and all these kids and those of us headed to the baseball game would all be trying to get on the subway at once. Then I remembered that there is a TEMPLE stop on the subway and visions of Owl/Wildcat confrontations loomed. But that did not transpire, happily, and I arrive at the park no worse for the wear.

After the game, my son graciously offered to drive me to the train station, so as to avoid the return subway ride. He dropped me outside the station, and I wandered around trying to figure out how to get in the station, but, alas, I could not because they are shooting a movie there. I was directed across the street to an entrance on the sidewalk and hustled, as best I could, toward the train. I rushed to the ticket window and was told they were closed and that I'd buy my ticket on the train. So I went to the gate and found I had missed the 10:15 train by three minutes. There were maybe 20 Villanova kids there, too, and they fanned out to find food and drink. I sat around, exhausted, waiting for the next train - 11:15.

About 11:00 the same 300-400 kids I rode in with were ready to go back to campus. Everyone was standing on the platform and jockeying for position, trying to predict where the doors would open. Smugly, I picked a spot that would get me in the last car. Turns out I was standing right where the door of the last car stopped - but that door didn't open. So hundreds of people were trying to get in four doors of four cars. Once we crammed on, the motor (and air conditioning) cut off and we sat for about 30 minutes while they brought another car. Hello? Didn't they notice these kids came IN to town? Didn't they think they'd have to come back OUT to their campus? Why wait until the last minute to add a car?

Anyway, the result of the waiting is what made this so interesting. It became clear to me that a vast percentage of the kids were freshmen who had just finished their first week of class. I think they were accompanied by residence assistants - there were slightly older students herding them around like camp counselors - but the freshmen were, deliciously, ON THEIR OWN. They were excited: They had just beaten Temple in what sounded like a pretty close game. But what most fascinating to me was the interaction between the students who had, for the most part, just met each other either that day or sometime this week. You could almost see the wheels turning in their heads, trying to figure out how to make the best impression on their new companions. One young man was regaling his new friend with stories of his high school stage crew responsibilities and the near disasters he (apparently single-handedly) averted. The young lady seemed suitably impressed and countered with her band camp stories. I overheard another kid mentioned that he and his posse were prepared, in case of a Temple victory, with a suitable cheer: "That's all right, that's okay, you'll all work for us someday!" Apparently the upperclassmen had already primed their young colleagues on how to adopt the snooty anti-Temple, anti-city game face. Three young women, NOT in the uniform shirt, informed me that THEY came in the city to go to the THEATER, not the game, "not that there's anything wrong with that." It was clear that the play they saw was of a genre pretty new to them and they reveled in their new sophistication. Finally, we arrived at the Villanova station and they all streamed off, leaving the rest of us to exhale and revel in the quiet. A bonus is that they never came around to collect tickets or sell them, so my whole trip cost me $6.75 - much better than the $12 I would have had to pay to park at the Phillies game!

What a wonderful anthropological experience! I didn't get in my car until 1:00 A.M. and was VERY glad to fall into my bed, but I was still kind of chuckling. How truly fresh these freshmen are - and how quickly they'll assimilate into people their parents just might not recognize at Thanksgiving. I'm not sure I'd want to go through those years again, but it sure was fun watching them last night.