Michael Barbaro, Summer 2002 intern on the
Financial desk
"Just get your butt on a train and go talk to people,"
my assignment editor said.
It is 3 p.m. on a Tuesday and The Washington Post wants me on
a train to somewhere. The goal: a feature about Amtrak stalwarts,
those curious railroad loyalists who won't let a few cracks
on a train car stop them from careening up and down the east
coast.
This is a day — or, more accurately, a very long evening
— in the life of a Washington Post summer intern, the
most eager, productive and, as luck would have it for the editors
here, flexible people in the newsroom. There are 21
of us this summer, racing off to various somewheres at all
hours.
At 3:30 p.m. the Post books a round trip to Philadelphia for
me on the Acela (even interns here, it turns out, have moderate
expense privileges). Onboard two trains for the next five hours,
I interrupt the lives of perfect strangers: business travelers
writing memos, mothers tending to children, ticket collectors
gathering stubs.
I get home at 11 p.m. and read over my interview notes. No obvious
structure emerges. But with a little prodding from the editors
the next morning, it all makes sense:
PHILADELPHIA—Yes,
they could just as easily fly. But aboard the Acela Express
No. 2172, which rumbles past the smokestacks and clotheslines
between Washington and Boston, passengers can quickly rattle
off the reasons to stick with the rails.
My assignment editor, and the brains behind the article, pitches
the 40-inch story for the front page and, on a slow news day,
it lands there.
Not a bad day. |
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