As a kid, the graffiti was always super cool. It was annoying that you couldn’t make out the announcements through the garbled speakers, but it wasn’t a big deal. You just had to know where you were going.
And when the lights would go out (which they did every few stops) you’d find yourself riding in the dark with a bunch of strangers who all stopped reading the paper until the lights came back on.
And it wasn’t especially fun, but it did make me feel cool. Suffering was one of the things New Yorker’s bonded over (and we still do) and those old subway cars were the peak of it. Everyone rode the subway. And most often we survived it.
I absolutely loved riding the subway when I was there on my solo vacation. As a long time rider of the TTC (the transit in Toronto), I felt right at home (the lights went out there too). And never once was I nervous or afraid.
