The other day, I gave up my seat on the subway. This doesn’t happen very often, because I am hideously lazy, and also a girl, and therefore, unless I spot a pregnant woman, a handicapped person or Methusela, I feel that I should get to keep my seat. This may be sexist. I don’t know. However, it helps me justify my sloth, so there you are.
Anyway, on this particular day, an elderly woman and her grandson got on the F-train. Something about the way they were talking to each other made it obvious that they were on some sort of special outing. The boy was wearing new shoes, I think, or holding her hand particularly tightly. He was definitely looking around at the other passengers as if observing zoo animals, so he didn’t ride the train every day, safe to say.
“Excuse me,” I said. “Would you like my seat?”
She said yes, and smiled, and tucked her grandson into the seat, and kept standing.
He stared at me a moment, and then crooked his finger at his gramma. She bent forward to hear him.
“Gramma, why did she give me her seat?”
At this point, the man next to the little boy got up and gave his seat to the grandmother. She thanked him, and leaned over to her grandson, “Because some people are very nice,” she said.
Jennie Smash 
Jennie Smash, you’re a good lady.
— The Donut
I am lazy. Howsomever, I am weak when it comes to grannies and kids.
oh you’re soooo good! lol.
i’ve got the lazy gene in me too.
Jennie, you are obviously from out of town. A soul-affirming tale wrenched out of a city in which ‘trust’ is just a name on a bank. My heart is appropriately warmed.
That’s my girl! See why I like to spoil you?! I love you soooo much!
Love, your own Ma Smash
PS: See you tomorrow. Hope we do something that will get me in the Blog.
No fair! You get Mom and Dad this weekend?! But-but-but, what about me?
Naughty pussycat. Come home!!! And bring a cute soldier with you!!!
Love, Ma Smash
“Chivalrous” Dude should have leapt at the opportunity to give up his seat, instead of being shamed into it. And the dude next to him should have given his seat to Granny.
We live in a sad age.
(Not to take away from your grace, Smash, but to say it shouldn’t have been necessary.)
wow, *sniffles and searches for her haagen-daz covered tissues* What?? I’ve been really sick this week and your story of hope and a young child’s human education brightened me up;) What I want to know is, why didn’t anyone give up their seat for you after they realized that you’re the patron siant of subway charity?
I enjoy imagining the discomfort of everyone else near you as they think about how they’re a douchebag. and how everyone else knows they’re a douchebag. and how, by the laws of karma, when they get on the subway with crutches (after I break all their legs) instead of being offered a seat, they’ll be beaten and mugged. and set on fire. as everyone else on the train looks away.
That story made me smile – thanks!