I Drive Trains Too

Michelle describes an instance when she encountered prejudice towards her work in the railways.

Michelle Ardron: “And the funniest ever time I was with another locomotive engineer, my now ex-husband. I’ll never forget this. We were at one of my kid’s hockey games. And he’s wearing a jacket that has his occupation printed right here. And I don’t have any emblazed stuff on. So he has his and he’s sitting on a bench in the warm area of an arena and some really, really elderly fellow’s sitting next to him. And there’s a big old chit chat going on and I’m watching my daughter get ready or whatever. And so, my ex-husband gets up to leave and I ‘Oh, I’m gonna sit down.’ So, I went over, sit down where he was sitting. And this fella, the old fella leans over, he says, ‘You know what that guy does?’ I said, ‘I’m sorry?’ He said, ‘You know what that guy does for a living?’ I said, ‘No, what?’ He said, ‘He’s a locomotive engineer. He drives trains.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I said, ‘You know what?’ I do, too.’ And I got up and left and the poor guy.”