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NY Times Blows This "Drunk Train To The Hamptons" Thing Wide Open
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jul 17, 2012
Modified Jul 17, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jul 17, 2012
Modified Jul 17, 2012
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Were you aware that the train to The Hamptons every weekend is a fratastic, drunken orgy? No? Seriously? Well it is, because the New York Times recently witnessed the "vignettes of discomfort" firsthand, and man, are they discomforting.
There's the "Pamplonaesque boarding process," the "pungent bathrooms," the dudes using the phrase "crunked" on-the-record. Yes, the train to the tip of Long Island has come a long way since "Jay Gatsby's guests took it to get to his mansion in the fictional West Egg." (Although an early manuscript for the novel featured Nick and Daisy shotgunning beers while Jay Gatsby commissioned the New York Philharmonic to perform Ratt's "Round And Round.")
It just so happens that two of the women interviewed about their drinking ("We're already two bottles in") were accompanied by our own roommate, AKA the "friend, his arm around a blender for frozen drinks." Did he think the train was quite the "scene" the reporter is suggesting it is? "Not really. I mean, those girls would have been drinking if they had gone by car anyway. Like, I guess anything is a 'scene' if people are getting drunk. Every bar in the city is a 'scene.' "
Did he have any particular horror stories from his travels? "A child screaming and throwing his iPad. And yeah the bathrooms smell horrible. But it's not a scene, it's just a really crammed train, you know?"
Tagged
drunk people
drunkenness
frat train
penn station
the hamptons
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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