Observations on a City Subway

I was riding on the El train early on a Saturday afternoon (because mornings are for pussies with jobs!), the back car, the far back seat...my absolute favorite spot to sit on a subway car. Why, you might ask? Well, its much easier to avoid the crazies that inhabit city subways when you can't look them in the eyes. Anyway, I was riding the El train, through Upper Darby and into West Philly.

For anyone who doesn't know, Upper Darby is a suburb of Philadelphia in name only. You don't know you've left the city until you run across Upper Darby High School, if you don't know where you are.

But there are some truly interesting folk that got in my car between the terminal and my stop, an unremarkable thirty blocks east. First, I want to make a note that the ethnicity of the train doesn't seem to change between Millbourne (an even tinier suburb than the one I live in) and 40^th and Market Street. It is almost exclusively black in that part of West Philly.

It's not really a huge surprise, I know. It's mostly a bit of a shock when people of other races begin to get on. It usually begins at 40^th street. It's where University City begins (Upenn and Drexel campuses), which means a lot more younger people begin to come on. You start seeing more white people, more Asians, a smattering of Arabic, Indian, and Latinos. (Though the smattering of Latinos is really throughout the entire ride.) When it really starts to mix is 15^th and Market. It's the hub of the Metropolitan area. City Hall, the tons and tons of polished marble and granite, towering overhead (or, through about fifteen feet of concrete, it really depends if you're in the subway or not), the Avenue of the Arts, the Gallery, and South Street, all within walking distance, and, lets not forget, Moore College of Art and Design and UArts Philadelphia right nearby. That's when you start getting the artsy types, the punks, the guidos coming through.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure where I was going with this. I know I was originally going to talk about subway crazies, like the guy who incessantly shakes his bottle of ice water, the guy who takes up two entire seats, the guy who lights up his crack rock two rows behind you...

But, then I'd be being mean.