Red line, outbound:
A girl is sitting across from me who piques my interest. She is taller than most girls, perhaps 5'10" with long, slender limbs and is wearing a blue t-shirt with pink denims and sandals. Unlike other T-readers, she is concentrating on her book with no apparent difficulty. She never glances up or looks around at other passengers. In the ten minutes she sat across from me, I watched her turn at least 4 pages. I can barely concentrate enough to read a paragraph. The book, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tim Robbins, is stamped by the Boston Public Library. It must be engrossing because as she reads, she thoughtfully ruminates both figuratively and literally—rather visibly masticating her gum. When the train arrives at Davis Square, she slides a bookmark between the pages, stuffs the book into her purse, and exits the train without the slightest acknowledgement of another fellow commuter.
29 June 2010
Alewife Station:
Three Chinese women approach the train, talking loudly. As they arrive at the doors, they begin clasping each others' hands and waving goodbye to one another. Two of them get into my car. The third leaves them at the door, walks along the train, and enters the adjoining car, finding a seat there among the passengers.
28 June 2010
Red Line:
6:30am — Inbound from Alewife to Park Street. Of the 30 people in the car with me, 28 of them are reading a newspaper or a book. Another is sleeping. The last is furtively observing everyone else's behavior.
1:30pm — Outbound from Park Street to Alewife. There are perhaps 45 people in the car. Only one is reading. The rest are sitting, staring ahead out the window or at the wall.
6:30am — Inbound from Alewife to Park Street. Of the 30 people in the car with me, 28 of them are reading a newspaper or a book. Another is sleeping. The last is furtively observing everyone else's behavior.
1:30pm — Outbound from Park Street to Alewife. There are perhaps 45 people in the car. Only one is reading. The rest are sitting, staring ahead out the window or at the wall.
27 June 2010
Red line, outbound:
Three girls, one with neon green shoes and a bright orange shirt, step off the train, talking excitedly. 30 seconds later they get back on the train in a much more sober mood and try to pretend that they hadn't left in the first place. In another 30 seconds they were back to their original mood. They got off (and stayed off) at the next station.
26 June 2010
Alewife Station:
Three 20-something guys arrive almost simultaneously from different directions, meeting in the center of the atrium. They greet each other with hugs and one of them passes a backpack around to the rest. From it, they draw Boston Red Sox t-shirts. Changing into them on the spot, they swipe their subway passes and descend to meet their train.
25 June 2010
Harvard Square station outbound to Alewife:
Two college students whisper to each other even though the station is empty but for them and me. As we wait for the train, my eyes stray to the graffiti of a vandal who has a bone to pick with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and a serious need to study spelling:
"Fashist MBTA"
Two college students whisper to each other even though the station is empty but for them and me. As we wait for the train, my eyes stray to the graffiti of a vandal who has a bone to pick with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and a serious need to study spelling:
"Fashist MBTA"
24 June 2010
Green line, inbound:
A man with a yellow mohawk jumps up to offer his seat and the empty one next to him to the man who had just gotten on with a 5-yr-old. The father thanks him profusely for his generosity and then sits, holding the squirming child on his lap. The other seat still remains empty. The man with the yellow mohawk stands next to it for several stops before exiting the train.
A man with a yellow mohawk jumps up to offer his seat and the empty one next to him to the man who had just gotten on with a 5-yr-old. The father thanks him profusely for his generosity and then sits, holding the squirming child on his lap. The other seat still remains empty. The man with the yellow mohawk stands next to it for several stops before exiting the train.
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