Tales from the commuter front -- don't engage the crazy

To understand the story, you need to know what a NYC subway car looks like.

photo credit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MTA_NYC_Subway_Bombardier_Transportation_R179_3059_interior.jpg

You're not going to find a train looking this empty during rush hour.

During rush hour, it starts to look more like this:

Photo credit:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/R160_interor_crowds.JPG


And then there's this:

Photo credit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Q_Train_Rush_Hour.jpg

You see how those who are standing are holding onto the metal bar, knee-to-knee with those who are sitting?  That's typical of rush hour.

I usually get on the train at Wall Street, which is the first stop  the train makes in Manhattan as it comes from Brooklyn and heads up to the Bronx.  The #2 and #3 trains run express, so it's just five short stops to Penn Station and the LIRR.  Most nights I get a seat.  The train usually fills up at the next stop, Fulton Street.  By the time we hit Chambers Steet, the train starts to feel like a sardine can.

Thursday night was no exception.  I found a seat and settled in for the ride.  But it was a bad night on the uptown  7th Avenue subway.  There were signal problems in Times Square, so all of the express trains were diverted to the local track.  This did not go over well with rush hour commuters, so the mood in the very crowded car was less than ecstatic...

A petite woman in business attire got on the train at Chambers Street and found  herself a place to stand. She was knee-to-knee with a burley man in a baseball jacket and hat. The man was several seats away from me, so I didn't see what initally happened, but I pieced it together based on what each of them said to the other.

Apparently the woman was carrying some type of bag, probably had it dangling from her arm.  Apparently the bag hit the man's knees.  Apparently he shoved the bag off of his knees.

She took  exception to his actions, and said: “You could have asked me politely to move my bag.”
He let loose an expletive-laced tirade about her behavior, that she should know how to behave in the subway.

She responded to him in a firm, quiet voice, that she did nothing wrong. He simply could have asked, and she would have moved her bag.


At this point, everyone in the train car was sympathetic to her.

But she was not not ready to move on. She never raised her voice, but she engaged him in a debate that quickly moved from the immediate issue — her tote bag ands proper etiquette on the subway  — on to comments about each other -- race, socioeconomic class, world knowledge, privilege and the like.

By now, neither of them was getting any sympathy from the rest of the passengers.

She turned her back, and he stood up and continued his rant. She turned to face him again.  He continued to yell, and actually shook his finger in her face. I  was almost certain he was going to hit her.

Eventually she moved away from him, and he stopped yelling.

But I was so happy when the train reached Penn Station.