You don't know me

Today as I was going home on the subway (the famously overcrowded 4-5-6 line), miraculously, all these seats opened up. I get on at Grand Central, where a lot of people get off to get on Metro-North or connect westbound.

So, I sat down. This would save a lot of trouble with people squeezing in later, plus people weren't really sitting down, so why waste a seat?

Two stops up, these very old ladies get on. By then, the train had gotten more crowded. They walked into the car facing away from me, and the taller lady tried to hold the overhead bar, but couldn't really reach it. Just a second or two after, the second lady, who appeared even older appeared. She was even shorter and had no hope of reaching the bar.

Now this goes back to an earlier post (8/30/04) by Eddy about giving up seats to the elderly, especially older women.

At that moment, I thought, I should give up my seat to that woman. Now picture the scene: I'm sitting by the door on the opposite side of where that woman was. There are all these people squeezed in, such that you could barely move.

Before I could offer my seat (because in these situations, I typically have this weird delay time of like 5-10 seconds), this woman on the other side closest to where the old women were gave up her seat. This shamed the riders seated next to her to also give up their seats.

Ok, so problem solved. I stayed in my seat.

Except the first woman who gave up her seat ends up standing basically right in front of me and starts talking to two adjacent riders who are also standing about why she gave up her seat, about how her grandmother who was 90 just passed away and she could barely walk and she would hate to see someone's grandmother not get a seat on the train and how she was just raised like that, blah blah. Then she proceeded to relate a story about another time on a bus when she gave up her seat and this 17 year old boy refused to get up and give up his seat.

What's wrong with that? She made a plain gesture toward me when she said "this 17 year old". I was already pissed off today about other things, and this almost made me lose it. LADY. YOU DON'T KNOW ME. DON'T PRESUME TO KNOW WHAT I'M ABOUT.

I really wanted to say something, like, "Are you referring to me? " and continue to go off on her, especially since I was about to give up my seat before she did. But I was so angry I decided against it. You really should assume the best in others, and I suppose this goes both ways. But in this case, I will presume she is a self-righteous person who assumes and meddles.

On a more positive note, even though I would love to be 2" taller, today I saw two really tall guys with major problems as a result of being tall. One couldn't fit into the bus seats (his legs were too long), and another hit his head on the metal overhead bar as he stood up to disembark. I guess anything can be a curse.