I grew up in New York and subway etiquette was drummed into my head from an early age. A polite person gives up his or her seat to people in certain categories. The categories are: pregnant women, disabled people, and older people, especially older women. When I was really young, a gentleman gave his seat to a lady, but that went the way of the dinosaur by the 1970s.
When I moved back to New York last month, I was pleased to see that subway etiquette is still operational. At least, I was pleased until, in the last week, on two separate occasions, polite young people offered their seats to me. Me? I'm not old enough to be offered a subway seat. I was deeply troubled, and mentioned it to my friend, who is my age. "Oh, yeah, that happens to me, too," she said, "but I just assume they thought I was pregnant."
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2 comments:
You know, the truth of the matter is that younger and younger people are riding the subways these days and to them anyone over thirty is old enough to be offered a seat. It's them. Not you.
I'm happy people still respect the disadvantaged. This means that we do still care about others.
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