Metro stories

Yesterday, I saw two really noteworthy examples of courtesy (or lack thereof) on the Metro. I talked about them with the Young Women last night for Personal Progress, but the story has stuck with me and I wanted to share it here.

Carl and I got on the Metro on our way home from work, and a nice guy stood up and offered me his seat. It was so kind of him.

Now, a few stops later, an old lady got on. Really, really old. I saw her and was like, whoa! I should give her my seat! But then I remembered, hey wait--I'm pregnant! Maybe it's not my job to stand up for her?

I had this inner debate with myself and decided that I would just wait and watch and if she stood for too long I would give her my seat.

Well, I didn't need to worry about that. Because she went up to these people sitting in the front seats of their row, and glared at them until they both moved. A businesswoman in a suit and a giant ghetto dude. They both scrammed and this lady took the seat by the window.

She sat down, and then leaned forward to the woman who had been sitting in the blue seat (which is supposed to be available for the handicapped). The woman sitting in the blue seat had a GIANT giant suitcase, and was holding several bags and messing around on her iPad.

Anyway, the old lady leaned forward and spat, "That seat is for seniors. Are you blind? Can't you read?" and every single word just dripped with derision.

The woman in the seat was incredibly gracious. She just said, "I'm really sorry. Would you like this seat? Because I can move. It's not a problem." The old lady just grunted (remember, she'd already chased away two entire human beings from her row during rush hour). The woman in the blue seat just picked up all her stuff, packed it all up, and dragged her bags and her giant suitcase off to another corner of the car. In retrospect, I wonder if that woman was also pregnant (or just kind of awkwardly fattish around the middle. I hate when you can't tell!).

The old lady just leaned back and grumbled and glared out the window for the rest of the time. She had chased away three separate people during rush hour. They were all just standing in the aisle. It was amazing to me that they would rather stand than sit next to her--but not that amazing, because wow, that lady was witchy, and I don't blame 'em.

Anyway, that was just a very sad thing to behold.