1) Puerto Rican Day parade day a few years ago. A young woman, shielded by her two friends, changes from her regular duds into her parade outfit ... while on the train.
2) Very late one Saturday night. 20-something guy looking a bit nervous, gets on train .... train sits in station for a few minutes .... man gets more nervous .... and finally .... thoroughly wets his pants (and drenches the seat) .... then leaves the train.
I love the photo of the two middle-aged men in suits standing on the subway seats in fear of a rat.
I rode the subway on Saturday. Went down to the city to pay my last respects to the old Yankee Stadium. I heard there's only one section left, and I wanted to take some photos before it's all gone forever. I took the 4 train from Grand Central to the Yankee Stadium stop, because it's less of a hassle than using the MetroNorth stop.
Some old Korean guy brought a rolling suitcase on board. He opened it up, to reveal some sort of electronic saxophone. He proceeded to set up right next to me, then perform "Amazing Grace" and some sort of Irsh jig. At this point, I was looking around for a way to exit, because it was deafening, and it was right in my ear. I was about to jump off at the next stop and get on another car, when he stopped, asked for money from everyone aboard, then exited to find new victims...I mean, a new audience.
The weirdest experience I ever had on a train was coming home late from an extra inning Yankees game (midnight or so). The train car was empty except for me, another guy and the odd coupling of a morbidly obese man (had to be atleast 700-800 pounds) and very thin homeless man. For about 5 stations, the homeless man was literally laying on the larger man. It almost looked as if they had developed some kind of symbiotic relationship. Finally, the conductor entered the car and yelled at the homeless man, eventually chasing him off the train. He then turned to the obese man and berated him for allowing himself to be abused like that. The conductor said something like, "You're a big man, why would you let someone do that you". The larger man so innocently and pathetically responded, "It's so hard for me to move".
I am not an emotional person, but I almost had to fight back a tear. The larger man eventually exited the train, and it took him about 2 or 3 minutes to walk the five feet to the door. The conductor looked frustrated as he waited for the man to leave.
I've seen more characters, than anything else, people like "Earthangel" on the 6 train. Overall, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary on the subway, though if I ever run into this
Riding to Dekalb Ave one morning on way to school, train was packed as usual. A Puerto Rican high-school girl had a huge backpack on and it kept hitting this elder lady who was sitting down..for some reason the old lady thought the bag belonged to this skinny guy standing next to them (it was very crowded, hard to see).
The old gal started berating him in heavily-accented English (maybe Russian), the skinny guy protested that it was not him, also with a heavy accent, probably from an Arab-speaking country. The school girl eventually was confronted by both of them and she started yelling in Spanglish..soon all three are yelling in a mixture of English and their own languages, creating this 4-language hodge-podge in which nothing was understandable..half the train car that could see this was in hysterics.
Awesome find Alex!
My two oddest subway moments:
1) Puerto Rican Day parade day a few years ago. A young woman, shielded by her two friends, changes from her regular duds into her parade outfit ... while on the train.
2) Very late one Saturday night. 20-something guy looking a bit nervous, gets on train .... train sits in station for a few minutes .... man gets more nervous .... and finally .... thoroughly wets his pants (and drenches the seat) .... then leaves the train.
I love the photo of the two middle-aged men in suits standing on the subway seats in fear of a rat.
I rode the subway on Saturday. Went down to the city to pay my last respects to the old Yankee Stadium. I heard there's only one section left, and I wanted to take some photos before it's all gone forever. I took the 4 train from Grand Central to the Yankee Stadium stop, because it's less of a hassle than using the MetroNorth stop.
Some old Korean guy brought a rolling suitcase on board. He opened it up, to reveal some sort of electronic saxophone. He proceeded to set up right next to me, then perform "Amazing Grace" and some sort of Irsh jig. At this point, I was looking around for a way to exit, because it was deafening, and it was right in my ear. I was about to jump off at the next stop and get on another car, when he stopped, asked for money from everyone aboard, then exited to find new victims...I mean, a new audience.
Sandals. Mets hat. This guy can do no right. If on the hat was on backwards! Then, ooooh then.....
The weirdest experience I ever had on a train was coming home late from an extra inning Yankees game (midnight or so). The train car was empty except for me, another guy and the odd coupling of a morbidly obese man (had to be atleast 700-800 pounds) and very thin homeless man. For about 5 stations, the homeless man was literally laying on the larger man. It almost looked as if they had developed some kind of symbiotic relationship. Finally, the conductor entered the car and yelled at the homeless man, eventually chasing him off the train. He then turned to the obese man and berated him for allowing himself to be abused like that. The conductor said something like, "You're a big man, why would you let someone do that you". The larger man so innocently and pathetically responded, "It's so hard for me to move".
I am not an emotional person, but I almost had to fight back a tear. The larger man eventually exited the train, and it took him about 2 or 3 minutes to walk the five feet to the door. The conductor looked frustrated as he waited for the man to leave.
4) Jesus, that is heart wrenching.
I've seen more characters, than anything else, people like "Earthangel" on the 6 train. Overall, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary on the subway, though if I ever run into this
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kz4ht07W3S1qzgiyxo1_500.jpg
I don't know how I would act :)
Riding to Dekalb Ave one morning on way to school, train was packed as usual. A Puerto Rican high-school girl had a huge backpack on and it kept hitting this elder lady who was sitting down..for some reason the old lady thought the bag belonged to this skinny guy standing next to them (it was very crowded, hard to see).
The old gal started berating him in heavily-accented English (maybe Russian), the skinny guy protested that it was not him, also with a heavy accent, probably from an Arab-speaking country. The school girl eventually was confronted by both of them and she started yelling in Spanglish..soon all three are yelling in a mixture of English and their own languages, creating this 4-language hodge-podge in which nothing was understandable..half the train car that could see this was in hysterics.