Mar 03 2008
Subway Episode 1,2,3
I finally managed to work up the nerve to take a picture of a total stranger on the subway without her ever knowing. I have been tempted so many times. Some mornings are non-stop glamour shootouts, others are hoodies and baseball caps. However, other than the Red-Haired Girl (eat your heart out, Charlie Brown), I’ve recently witnessed various awesome public transportation moments:
A family of foreign tourists, pater, mater, teenage son and lolita daughter, is riding the southbound local. At 42nd St, the man gets out of the train, but the doors close behind him, leaving his bewildered family on the subway without him. Immediately, well-meaning NYers step in to advise the confused woman on how to get back to the 42nd St platform, but she’s not sure she shouldn’t wait at the next stop for him to come to her. She starts to look quite petrified. And I think to myself, what a great set-up for a movie. Your foreign cell phone definitely won’t function in the bowels of the MTA, you have no way to contact each other, who should wait for who? Does the family get even more separated? What kind of nonsense befalls them? Will the girl run off into the NYC afternoon? There’s a lot of possibilities. Screenwriters, hit me up.
Then the other day I and all the rest of the passengers in my car eavesdropped on a conversation two men were having about heavyweight boxing, discussing the merits of Mayweather vs. Tyson, Michael vs. Leon Spinks, fairly loud. No mention of The Greatest, my all-time fave champ whom I and half the world , I bet, still hugely crush on, though I strained my ears mightily to hear. No mention of Evander Holyfield, Ken Norton or George Foreman. But still, what they were saying was interesting and lively and made my commute more fun.
The thing that really made it over-the-top was when the man standing next to me couldn’t resist getting in on it all, an intelligent, loud three-way conversation ensued across the bridge, and a congenial time was had by all.
