Downstate

Summary

Every New Yorker who has ridden the subways for any length of time eventually cracks. The announcements are incomprehensible, the trains get stuck for seemingly no reason. On a particular day in 2003, even the air conditioner didn’t work in the car, and, yes, I cracked. I stormed out of the F train, which was stuck at West 4th Street, ran over to the motorman’s window and was about to give him a piece of my mind. When I saw the motorman and he saw me, we both burst out laughing.