This afternoon a friend of mine, along with her family, arrived in NY. Theresa & I went into the city to meet them for dinner. We live way out in eastern Queens so, rather than taking a bus and then the subway, we took the LIRR (Long Island Railroad) in. Then took the subway for 1 stop up into Times Square.
It was during the subway part of our trip that I saw something I have never seen before. Now, mind you, I’m 51 & I’ve taken the subway thousands of times. I used to work in the city and took it every day for years. And yet, I never, ever saw what I witnessed today.
Now you’re probably picturing I saw something horrible because y’all have probably heard horror stories about the NYC subway and how scary it is. (Not really, though. They exaggerate.) It wasn’t anything like that. What we saw was someone trying to get on without paying. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen people jump the turnstiles. Usually younger people do that. Teenagers, athletic sorts who hop it like they’re jumping hurdles. But this was a middle age woman. And she didn’t hop it. She crawled under it. Theresa and I just looked at each other, mouths opened in shock. Then we spent the next few minutes laughing but trying not to let her see we were laughing.
That’s why I like riding the subway. There’s always something entertaining to see.