An Only in New York Moment

Riding the 7th Avenue Express train yesterday from Brooklyn into Manhattan, a group of riders (me among them) is discussing the best way to get from Chambers Street to Franklin Street with a mom who's got her two kids in tow. Should she get out at Chambers and walk to Franklin? No, I say, she should transfer to a local train at Chambers and ride to Franklin, thus sparing her the inevitable hassle of walking with two young kids + a stroller.

But this is a Sunday, and the MTA typically does track work on Sundays, and riding into Manhattan from Brooklyn can be a guessing game of where the train will stop and how and when to reach your destination if an Express suddenly goes local, or vice versa. This particular express seems to be making only express stops, which is a good sign. But the couple in the seats across from me disagree that we will stop at Chambers, or that Mom can transfer there to the local. We're running out of time, since the Automated Subway Lady Voice chirps that Chambers is the next stop. Sheesh.

With gentle prodding, the curly haired (but not necessarily semitic) middle aged woman next to me finally decides to pipe in. She looks up from her Sunday Times, shrugs diffidently, and says "it's Sunday. The trains are always meshuggenah." (For those non-Yiddish speakers among my readers....this means that the trains are always crazy, ie, screwed up.) Not helpful, but funny!

Only in New York, babies, only in New York.

(Oh, and the train did stop at Chambers, and Mom and Co. successfully exited to take the local. And I was left bemusedly pondering my seatmate's off-handed remark, which one likely would never hear on Bay Area Rapid Transit.)