{"id":168,"date":"2004-10-11T18:15:07","date_gmt":"2004-10-11T21:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/?p=168"},"modified":"2008-09-12T10:35:06","modified_gmt":"2008-09-12T15:35:06","slug":"on-the-f-train-with-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/","title":{"rendered":"On the F Train with Superman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Goodbye,<\/p>\n

When you live in New York long enough, you get to run into just about everybody.<\/p>\n

I remember in the mid 80’s, I was on the F Train heading uptown to meet some friends, and this guy got on at West 4th Street. Thought nothing of it… except two girls sitting next to me were going ga-ga over him. Sure he was a good-looking guy and really tall, but he was dressed like a regular guy with jeans, a baseball jacket and a backpack.<\/p>\n

Like a typical New Yorker, he put one foot on the door, grabbed the strap and watched the lights out the door window.<\/p>\n

One of the girls whispered to the other in a half-giggle “Superman”, and I gave him a double take.<\/p>\n

Holy shit! It really WAS Christopher Reeve.<\/p>\n

He smiled at the girls (as he heard it too) and gave me a nod “hello” as I’m staring at him with my head askew like a confused puppy.<\/p>\n

And after what I’m sure was an uncomfortable eternity for him waiting for his stop, he got off at 34th<\/sup> Street.<\/p>\n

A memory that played over and over in my head as I heard the sad news of his passing today. When I was picked up from work today, my son had the saddest look on his face and said “Daddy, did you hear Superman died today?”<\/p>\n

Then I told him the story about meeting him on the train.<\/p>\n

All day long I couldn’t put a word on how I felt today.
\nI finally figured it out an hour or so ago:<\/p>\n

Relief.<\/p>\n

I admit I haven’t given Christopher Reeve a lot of thought over the years. But I do know that if it were me who broke his neck nine years ago and were condemned to live trapped in a body that didn’t work…<\/p>\n

… I would have wished I had died right there on the spot.<\/p>\n

He accomplished a lot in the last few years, fighting for causes, directing, writing a book; But I bet he would have given anything to just run free in a meadow with his arms wide open. Just once. Probably dreamed about it all the time. You can’t put a price tag on that.<\/p>\n

Rest in peace, Chris.<\/p>\n

P.S. A full-sized wallpaper version of “Goodbye Superman” is available in my Gallery over at Animotions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflections on the late Christopher Reeve, and the day I rode the train with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-old-skewl"],"yoast_head":"\nOn the F Train with Superman - SoApBoX<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On the F Train with Superman - SoApBoX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reflections on the late Christopher Reeve, and the day I rode the train with him.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SoApBoX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"EricBrooksDotComWeb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"EricBrooksDotComWeb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-10-11T21:15:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-09-12T15:35:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eric Brooks\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EricBrooksCom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EricBrooksCom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eric Brooks\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eric Brooks\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30\"},\"headline\":\"On the F Train with Superman\",\"datePublished\":\"2004-10-11T21:15:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-09-12T15:35:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\"},\"wordCount\":399,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Old Skewl\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\",\"name\":\"On the F Train with Superman - SoApBoX\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2004-10-11T21:15:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-09-12T15:35:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On the F Train with Superman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/\",\"name\":\"SoApBoX\",\"description\":\"Rants and Raves of Eric Brooks. Low-tech whining in cyberspace...\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30\",\"name\":\"Eric Brooks\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/eb_3d_logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/eb_3d_logo-1.png\",\"width\":190,\"height\":190,\"caption\":\"Eric Brooks\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Musician, Programmer, Graphic Designer, Evil Clown - A thorn in the Internet's side since 1997 with no intention of stopping any time soon.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\",\"EricBrooksDotComWeb\",\"ericbrooksdotcom\",\"ericbrookscom\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/EricBrooksCom\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/author\/site-admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On the F Train with Superman - SoApBoX","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On the F Train with Superman - SoApBoX","og_description":"Reflections on the late Christopher Reeve, and the day I rode the train with him.","og_url":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/","og_site_name":"SoApBoX","article_publisher":"EricBrooksDotComWeb","article_author":"EricBrooksDotComWeb","article_published_time":"2004-10-11T21:15:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-09-12T15:35:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg"}],"author":"Eric Brooks","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EricBrooksCom","twitter_site":"@EricBrooksCom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eric Brooks","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/"},"author":{"name":"Eric Brooks","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30"},"headline":"On the F Train with Superman","datePublished":"2004-10-11T21:15:07+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-12T15:35:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/"},"wordCount":399,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg","articleSection":["Old Skewl"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/","url":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/","name":"On the F Train with Superman - SoApBoX","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg","datePublished":"2004-10-11T21:15:07+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-12T15:35:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/goodbye_superman.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/on-the-f-train-with-superman\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On the F Train with Superman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/","name":"SoApBoX","description":"Rants and Raves of Eric Brooks. Low-tech whining in cyberspace...","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/8ff62df16d2105a698b2aa19323dca30","name":"Eric Brooks","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/eb_3d_logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ericbrooks.com\/images\/posts\/eb_3d_logo-1.png","width":190,"height":190,"caption":"Eric Brooks"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Musician, Programmer, Graphic Designer, Evil Clown - A thorn in the Internet's side since 1997 with no intention of stopping any time soon.","sameAs":["https:\/\/ericbrooks.com","EricBrooksDotComWeb","ericbrooksdotcom","ericbrookscom\/","https:\/\/x.com\/EricBrooksCom"],"url":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/author\/site-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericbrooks.com\/soapbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}