Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Bay Ridge Tornadoes (not a ball team) - Part Two
By the time I squeezed onto the third train, I had been there for over half an hour. A young man walked past me shortly before, wearing 10 times as much after shave as any one person should wear. I silently wished he wouldn’t get into the same crowded carriage as me. But in that carriage was a man smelling of week old, stale spices. Where are you after-shave man?
Limbs everywhere! A female colleague complained to me that on her commute, a man came up behind her and pressed his crotch into her derriere. I had arms on my crotch and both butt cheeks at various times – but unlike my colleague’s rendition, there was nothing anyone could do about it! Once again, the conductor was announcing that there was a train behind, and once again, everyone who could squeeze on did so. An incumbent woman told a large man who took the last available space what the conductor had said, and in an obvious Russian accent, he replied: “’Yes, I know! This is 5th train. All were bechind (sic.)”
I was most grateful to see an A train at Jay Street, as this would take me to the Wall Street area. Had the F really been the only train running into Manhattan, I might have had to walk from Chinatown in the steam-bath conditions. Supposedly, the temperature reached 100 degrees F today (38C). The humidity wasn’t much less and the underground subway platforms were far hotter. I reached the City at 10:30am, hot and weary; my bald, high forehead firmly greased with sweat, and it was a while before I could actually concentrate on my work. Could have been worse though! My commute home was normal. Had I lived in Queens, it could have been as much fun as the morning journey.