Standing on the Corner of Walk, Don't Walk

New Year's Eve. On the corner of Arlington and Boylston, right outside the Public Gardens. The streets are filled with people wearing their First Night buttons and, inexplicably, balloons on their heads.

Waiting for the light.

A man and his little boy. The little boy wants to push the walk light button. The man tells him not to. The little boy is insistent. The man is more so.

But why? asks the little boy. (Yeah, why? I wonder.)

The light will change, he says. It won't last forever. Then he adds: People are trying to get to work.

Huh, I thought. I look at the cars driving by. At 2:30 in the afternoon??

I wondered what other strange advice the man gives his son.