The stanchion was a metal post bolted to the floor. Cast iron or steel, three feet tall, standing in a row at the edge of the sidewalk or the entrance to the subway or the front of the bank. The stanchion held the rope that held the line that held the people. The stanchion was crowd control before crowd control was a profession. The stanchion said wait here. The velvet rope said wait here politely.

The stanchion was heavy. That was the point. You could not kick it over. You could not drag it. The stanchion was bolted through the concrete and the bolt went six inches deep and the stanchion stood there like it was growing out of the floor. The plastic stanchion at the airport weighs four pounds and tips over when somebody brushes it with a suitcase. The plastic stanchion asks for cooperation. The iron stanchion demanded it.

The stanchion organized the city. The ferry terminal had stanchions. The bank had stanchions. The theater had stanchions. Every place where people gathered and needed to know where to stand had a row of stanchions with a chain or a rope between them. The stanchion was democracy's furniture. Everybody waited in the same line behind the same rope. The VIP entrance does not have a stanchion. The VIP entrance does not have a line. A line is what happens to the rest of us.

The stanchion was decorative. The good ones were cast with fluted columns and acorn finials and the rope was braided silk. The movie theater on Fourteenth Street had brass stanchions with red velvet ropes and the ropes said this is an event. The nylon strap retractor on a chrome pole says this is a queue. An event and a queue are the same situation with different self-respect.

They replaced the stanchions with painted lines on the floor. Yellow lines and arrows and signs that say STAND HERE. The line on the floor assumes you can read. The stanchion assumed you could feel. You felt the rope at your waist and you knew where the boundary was without reading anything. The stanchion spoke to your body. The painted line speaks to your eyes. The body is more reliable than the eyes. The body does not argue with a rope.

See also: Hitching Post, Iron Railing