Of all the things I miss from my years living in New York City*, the thing I miss most is reading on the subway or the bus. Getting places while doing something you love to do, accomplishing something (I finished my New Yorker!), knowing you have an entire hour or half hour to check out of the daily grind while engaging in a favorite activity (yes, reading is an activity) is a wonderful thing. After a few moments of people watching, or estimating how long a ride it’ll be based on traffic and the season (the M10 or M104 buses going through mid-town during the fall and winter crush, for example), being able to pull a book out of my bag to settle in for the ride is a joy I truly regret surrendering, especially as I get into my car to drive everywhere now. Everywhere. Yeah, sure, I can walk to the post-office approximately three miles away, or bike there, but I don’t want to do that every day, and definitely not with the very large live-in fur beast, a beast who desires nothing more than to chase every single car or truck that passes us. In other words, I’m already getting plenty of steps in, dahlinks. If only I had a chauffeur and could read in the capacious back seat, except – then I’d have to be richy-rich and personally I prefer to eat the rich (metaphorically), plus I have a hard time being driven, because people drive too slowly, too cautiously, or stupidly. It’s possible I drive too fast in part because using a car seems like a humongous waste of my time when I could be reading, FFS!! It’s possible.
The subways in NYC were in my experience, safe, convenient and fast. The buses were safe, not so fast, but also convenient, especially if I wanted an hour to myself to read, and wasn’t in a hurry. They take you everywhere, and on the bus as an added perk you can people watch and see neighborhoods as they change in real time; wait another six months and there will be even more new businesses or construction on that route you haven’t traveled since spring. And as the seasons change you see wardrobes change, and in a big city, that’s a show in and of itself.
Sure a few not so great things happened on the bus or subway, to me, and to others; I’ve witnessed good and bad, been highly entertained by music and dance acts on platforms and in subway cars, as well as being groped, flashed and threatened. I’ve seen fights break out, including twice witnessing white men in suits attack homeless men who were doing nothing more than existing in the underground space, on a platform. Okay, yes, these men often smell to high heaven, but – you’re then making the choice to touch them? Men in suits also smell, often, of too much cologne, the kind that nauseates me. And y’know what? That’s life, baby. That’s life. Conflict breaks out in the midst of peace and quiet. People use too much cologne and do truly weird shit because they’re having a bad, horrible day and a homeless man or whoever looks at someone the ‘wrong way’ or vice versa and a cork pops, a pot boils over, conflict ensues. Life. Still and all, the good times, safe rides to and from work and class and friends and home, and peaceful hours of reading, these times far outweigh the bad; that’s life too.
Bernie Goetz, remember him? He shot four teenagers on the subway in 1984, my third year as a resident of the city. The news of this was all over from start to finish, all over the city I mean. The subways were less safe in the eighties, I guess, but that too had begun to change, improve, as the fortunes of the city improved. Safer or not, millions of people relied and rely on those trains and buses daily – and no one, no one needs to carry a gun much less shoot menacing or even threatening teenagers on any form of transportation, anywhere, ever. But then, I hate fucking guns and the gun huggers who so love them they turn a blind eye to the unbelievable damage their sick love is perpetrating on the American people, especially children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shooting
But I digress. I miss, I miss, I miss my subway and bus rides. I miss hours of clackety clack and the steady start, stop, and go of the bus, with someone else conducting or driving, an else, moreover, whom I cannot see or criticize, doing the best they can. And the satisfaction of knowing you’re on public transport, doing the right thing, cutting down on congestion, pollution and the like, that’s kinda great too. We need more public infrastructure, not less. One of the great challenges throughout upstate New York is a lack of public transport, challenging especially for the poor, who are one paycheck or one flat tire from not being able to pay bills or get to work to make the money to pay bills. In my county, driving thirty minutes or more for employment is the norm, and there are no buses or trains to get you there. A friend’s son just got work in a neighboring county, it’s a forty-five-minute drive around the reservoir and over the hills; he’s twenty-three and drives an old Subaru whose body is rusted, and on its way out. Before winter he needs a new-er car to make the drive, but I suspect she will allow him to drive her much more recent model vehicle to work, at least until he’s got through the six-month probationary period at this job.
And I will try, once again, now that fall is here, to achieve at least one day per week in which I do not get into my car, at all. At all. I miss those drivers, those conductors, those working stiffs who make the world go ‘round. I miss the click and clack of the London bus system ticket-ers, who were a study in balance, grace, and – very often – humor. I miss people watching and the diversity of those people. I miss the subway and buses of New York. Sigh.
*One caveat: I also desperately, desperately miss the delivery of greasy spoon breakfasts after a night out or to end the night as dawn breaks, and Indian food delivered to my door, the best ‘I feel like I’m getting a cold’ fix, ever, as well as Ethiopian food, Thai, Sushi, Korean, Middle Eastern…Sigh.