We have all heard the typical, “I fell asleep and missed my train stop” story or the awful long train delay complaints, tales of the bizarre things people try to sell you and the epic cab driver who wouldn’t stop talking.
But, in a city of diversity, like New York, the commuting stories are taken to a whole new level. The City has 2.7 million residents using various modes of transportation daily. With options such as, subway, buses, bikes, taxis, Uber, boats, on foot and even a sky-tram, the stories from travelers are from ludicrous to eerie.
And then those stories that are just plain weird…..
Brenda Fogarty has been living in New York City since she was 8. Commuting back and forth to kindergarten she remembers feeling like everyday was a new adventure with a new story. Stories which she would go home and reenact with her barbie dolls. Fogarty is now 17, and says she will never forget her freakish experience on the subway that she couldn’t do justice to re creating with her dolls.
“I normally have my headphones in, like every New Yorker, to make it obvious that I do not want to talk. I had, I think it was my first ipod in my ears, with Kelly Clarkson blasting and I was riding the subway home from school with my aunt. That was when I got asked one of the strangest questions. A blonde female, wearing a tight pant suit, was sitting down in the seat that I was standing in front of. She reached for my hand as she asked me if she could cut my fingernails and keep them.”
Okay…told you it was weird. “I remember grabbing my aunt and being just plain confused.” Fogarty says she wonders to this day if that woman was a scientist who wanted to use her fingernails for some sort of experiment or just a woman with an imagination.
Speaking of imagination, who would imagine someone would use their train ride to meal prep their dinners….
“Yep. I wish I was lying” said 30 year old Anna Seery who traveled from her hometown in Secaucus, New Jersey to Manhattan for 5 years. “Until this past month, I was commuting my life away.” A commute of which she experienced sleepy commuters falling asleep and eventually landing their head on her shoulder. This, or the guy who would sit next to Seery and attempt to speak the entire commute. “I was really becoming miserable, not because of the duration of the commute, but because of all these folks that did not leave me alone.” It was back in November of last ye
ar when Seery discovered the trick that would allow her to ride the subway annoyance free!- “ On one of my awful commuting days, I was trying to relax, and then the strong odor of brussel sprouts spread through the train. I put my scarf over my nose and tried to recall if I had any of those sample perfumes in my bag that would mask the stench.” Instead, what Seery saw was a woman, with a cutting board, and a razor sharp knife, slicing her brussel sprouts, surrounded by…..NO ONE.
“ It was the most incredible ploy! She was genuinely surrounded by not one sole.”
When I approached Seery last week, it was while she was peeling a mango on the train. A custom of peeling and pr
eparing fruit salads that began for her four months back in November.
