the rix mix

Took a late afternoon train to Rahway (kept my ticket) & walked up to St. Georges Ave. where there's a stretch of highway much more useful to most Rahwayans than the actual downtown. In a three block stretch are two banks, Drug Fair, CVS, Walgreen's, Dunkin' Donuts, a produce market, & a large liquor mart, plus other stores. Even when I drove I often parked & walked it. Took care of bank business & strolled past Beana's Mexican place (at what age is a child ready for refried?) , to Walgreen's. Two for one sale was worth two year's supply of Tylenol PM. Stopped into CVS, by far the most popular women's cosmetics section of the three, perhaps it's the lighting. On past the overstuffed used bookstore I no longer patronize. Skipped Dunkin' Donuts today; the sweet Filipino lady who gives me a senior discount on cappucino wasn't working. Quick browse around Drug Fair, short-sightedly bought small bag of chips but no cold beverage. For all the weird stuff these drug palaces stock, none sells a small air pump for bike tires & basketballs. Back at train station, a cop was giving the platform a once over for no reason but that it's part of his beat, & the guy cleaning the closed waiting room unlocked so a pregnant woman could use the bathroom - right there are two differences between Rahway & Elizabeth. While I never get bored with the short trip between both towns, seeing the empty freight yard behind the shut Linden GM plant is a bummer; lots of well-paying jobs gone through no fault of the workers.