Observations & wisdom on a NYC subway by Sherri Rosen
I was in a lousy mood, riding uptown from Park Place, in the Financial District in NYC to my exercise studio on the upper Westside. It was l0am Saturday morning and I was grateful it wasn’t crowded, and I didn’t have to fight for a seat.
There were a few white folks scattered in the car. I sat there and I began looking around as I usually do. I spot this Puerto Rican guy, nicely dressed in white pants and a black and white shirt, and smoothly combed hair. Looked like he was going on a date. He was sitting next to the subway doors and each time a woman would come in he would get up and offer her a seat, and each time the woman would say “no, thank you” and he would sit back down in the same seat, until an elderly woman came in and he got up and she finally took the seat offered.
For awhile he looked like one of those jack -in -the- box toys, and was making me dizzy getting up so much. Didn’t dawn on me at the time that I could have looked away.
When he moved he sat at the opposite seat next to the subway doors and I could see he was handsome and around 40 years old. Now he began speaking loudly explaining how to make gravy for a Puerto Rican dish. I hadn’t a clue who he was talking to until I realized he wasn’t talking to anyone, until he caught the eye of an elderly black man sitting next to him, who kindly gave him his attention by nodding to show he was listening and respecting the guy or just trying to appease him.
The PR guy kept right on talking even when the kindly man got up to get off at his stop at 42nd Street. Then, in walks this homeless guy, saying “okay, okay, “you better be quiet,” pointing his finger at the PR guy saying “this is my car so stop talking,” and everyone in the car did. Except the PR guy who continued to speak softly and put his hand over his mouth.
The homeless guy pointed to some woman seated and said “I know you think I’m crazy, but guess what, you’re the crazy one!” “This is my car! This is my roof over my head as he lifted his arm up to the top roof of the car. “You’re the crazy ones for paying $2,000 a month for an apartment when all I have to pay is $2.50 a day. So who’s crazy? Not me!”
The folks in the subway car kind of nodded in agreement with this homeless guy, some smiling in recognition, because he had hit a nerve, living in this high priced City paying $2000 a month rent, trying to survive paying “the man.”
I know he hit a nerve in me, because my landlord had just raised me $700 more a month in rent.
The homeless guy just kept talking on and on as loud as can be, and by this time it was time for me to get off. The PR guy was still talking about his
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Tags: homeless, publicist nyc, publicity nyc, puerto rican, sherri rosen, sherri rosen publicity nyc, subway, wisdom
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 19th, 2014 at 6:31 am and is filed under Clients, Friends and Colleagues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
