it was just a misunderstanding

I was sitting there on the 1 train and it was rush hour and I had a lot of bags because I had just gone shopping for cat litter. I found a seat in the corner of the car, which was best for me because there I was most out of everyone’s way and they were most out of mine and less likely to step all over my bags or catch an attitude because the bags were in their way. It is a way of being considerate, I think. Of course, later on in the ride a beggar came through from between the cars and was carrying or pushing a walker, strangely enough, and he rolled over the corner of one of my bags – it was a paper bag – and tore it a bit but not much. Getting the walker through the doors unaided and keeping balance – as one who needs a walker, evidently – in between the moving cars, is an impressive feat of sorts.

Anyway, point was that I was sitting there minding my business and a man came on the train with his two daughters and they were all obviously not from New York by the way they dressed and the way the comported themselves on the train and the fact that they were so eager and vigilant about holding onto the poles when they walked on. Then, the father looked at an ad that was situated above my head, and laughed at it in a way that I thought was knowing, with a comment such as, “look at that message”. He pointed it out to his daughters who had no reaction. The ad was part of one of the MTA’s new series of ads and psa’s. There are line designs on the bottom of the page that are multicolored and meant to resemble the train lines on an old subway map. The content of the message was something to the effect that you should hold on while you multitask. The picture showed people holding onto the pole on a subway car with one hand while playing on a smartphone or some such device with the other.

The guy seemed eager to get a reaction about his noticing the ad, and I was as always eager to commiserate about the indignity of paternalistic MTA psa’s. “I guess we are all children in their eyes.” I said. He considered the comment and said, “Yeah, it’s important. I’ve seen people stumbling around trying to play on their phones.” Oh, I thought, he misunderstood me and thought that I was happy that we are children in their eyes. “Hmph. That’s the new increased subway fare put to work – those ads, I mean.” I meant to clarify that what I was against was the nature of the ad itself, not the nature of the behavior of the subway riders portrayed in the ad. There was no response; only a smile. He got off at the next stop. He was a tourist and didn’t care about the fare hike. It was just a misunderstanding.