So long, and thanks for all the coffee

There is a group of people who work in this country who do not get enough recognition. They probably have to put up with the most depressed and maligned group of people, get grunted at or ignored but always grin and bear it. These are the people who have to serve the early morning commuters. And when I say early morning commuters I mean the people who start their daily journey before 6.30 am. I am such a person.

This morning the girl who serves me coffee at 6.15 am told me that today was her last day as she had found a job that matched her university qualifications, good for her and she deserves it. She knew a lot of her early commuters and always had a smile and a joke as she was serving coffee. But there is a problem; we all took it for granted that she knew what kind of drink we wanted and we never asked; now we have to remember what we want. I mentioned this to her and she said she would leave a note to the effect that the grumpy old git who gets off the first airport train wants a black coffee, no sugar and has a discount card. We shall see tomorrow if she did.

But there are staff like her all over the country. They include rail staff, newsagents, bus and taxi drivers and postmen. Usually you get a smile and a good morning from them but if you don’t it is not worth getting upset because you know you have had bad mornings as well. Even the commuters greet each other, usually just with an acknowledgment of your existence.

When I lived on the south coast there was a Big Issue seller who would stand at the entrance to the station every morning, nothing strange about that you say but he would get there before 6 am. He would only ever try to sell you a copy once as he remembered who had bought them and he would always greet you. He was also up for a joke from the commuters if had been late in the morning and was trying to make up sales in an afternoon when we all come home. His enterprise and effort did not go unnoticed and one of the commuters offered him a job, which he took. I hope everything is working out for him.

My point to all this is that there is a kind of community between all groups of people who are thrown together at the break of the day in there effort to get to work. Commuting later in the day always seems like a battle and a chore. Nobody smiles, the coffee girl and the newsagent turn into automatons, nobody has time for anybody else.

The first 20 minutes of my journey home tonight will be pleasant as well I hope. The person with the drinks trolley will come along, serve me and have a quick chat and then the train turns into a cattle truck as it passes through one of England’s major cities.

My commuting days will come to an end in a few weeks time for a while, why I recharge my batteries. I hope no more of my “staff” leave before I do.

The discount card I mentioned can be found at http://www.bitecard.co.uk. It is free and I do not seem to have been added to any mailing list either. Take a look, and if you are a frequent train traveller it is a must have.