New-fangled Road Rage
Jun. 28th, 2007 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizenThe subway heading home wasn't that packed, but getting off the train was a bitch today to say ther least. Hundreds of people thronged out of train into the station and up the steps. When these hundreds of people head up the ramp into Port Authority, they (and I) crammed slowly onto the one-storey escalator. Meanwhile I met a Cliff Clayvin Wanna-Be merging into the escalator-bound throng; we exchanged an exasperated glance at each other and he said something innocuous that I can't remember now.
I do, however, remember hearing a pseudo-squabble behind us, but it seemed like two acquaintances who were debating something. This squabble carried on into the hallways of the Port Authority and I physically turned to look at the two men apparently either debating a work-related issue, having a male bonding moment in public, or truly exerting some misplaced road rage while walking through Port Authority. The bigger and bald one of the two business casual men was walking the other guy into a wall saying, "tour parents failed you as a son! They failed you, goddammit!" The smaller (yet still formidably sized) guy looked a little desparate and noticed that I'd turned to look at them. Keep in mind we're walking and walking so it all was happening quickly. I didn't know what to do other than keep walking and get on the next escalator up to the second floor, which I did.
Then those two follow me up the escalator, the bigger guy keeping up the pace with the smallere one and they passed me up the steps and saying loudly, "Yessir! You're parents failed you!" and was making sure to stay just behind the guy and they both turned right.
At the top of the escalator, I got out of the way of oncoming pedestrians and watched to my right. The smaller guy had reached out to a cop and begun talking about the bigger guy. They were both standing on opposite sides of her (yep! A female cop got to handle this squabble...) telling her the story. I felt a little compelled to go over and be a "witness" but then I thought, "To what?? What did I really see? Just two random guys carrying out an altercation that I didn't know how got started, with whose subject I was not familiar, and whose participants I had barely seen.". So, after my chest and arms endured light smacks from a couple of pedestrians' babies' arms, I turned left and made my way to my bus terminal leaving the road rage to those two and the cop.
I do, however, remember hearing a pseudo-squabble behind us, but it seemed like two acquaintances who were debating something. This squabble carried on into the hallways of the Port Authority and I physically turned to look at the two men apparently either debating a work-related issue, having a male bonding moment in public, or truly exerting some misplaced road rage while walking through Port Authority. The bigger and bald one of the two business casual men was walking the other guy into a wall saying, "tour parents failed you as a son! They failed you, goddammit!" The smaller (yet still formidably sized) guy looked a little desparate and noticed that I'd turned to look at them. Keep in mind we're walking and walking so it all was happening quickly. I didn't know what to do other than keep walking and get on the next escalator up to the second floor, which I did.
Then those two follow me up the escalator, the bigger guy keeping up the pace with the smallere one and they passed me up the steps and saying loudly, "Yessir! You're parents failed you!" and was making sure to stay just behind the guy and they both turned right.
At the top of the escalator, I got out of the way of oncoming pedestrians and watched to my right. The smaller guy had reached out to a cop and begun talking about the bigger guy. They were both standing on opposite sides of her (yep! A female cop got to handle this squabble...) telling her the story. I felt a little compelled to go over and be a "witness" but then I thought, "To what?? What did I really see? Just two random guys carrying out an altercation that I didn't know how got started, with whose subject I was not familiar, and whose participants I had barely seen.". So, after my chest and arms endured light smacks from a couple of pedestrians' babies' arms, I turned left and made my way to my bus terminal leaving the road rage to those two and the cop.
