farewell to the nyc subway token
alas
another great bit of nyc character is gonna be flushed into the east river
i remember the token when i first came to nyc 22 years ago
it was full then
there was no bite taken out of the middle like a bagel
i loved to finger a few tokens in my pocket
touching them
shoving them into the money slot at the turnstyle was my right of passage
i lived in a bad neighborhood
and didn't have the cash to take cabs
so i rode the trains
during the high crime, pre-Guiliani era
i rode the trains
well after midnight
i watched people have sex on the 2 train
at 4 AM
i learned how to do the subway stare
(you glare up at the ceiling or down at the floor with an expression on your face that reads like a combination of bored and psychotic so no one bothers you)..
then they took a bite out of the token
i guess it was to save metal
or maybe so you could hang them on a keychain
or a necklace
or be able to tell the difference between a token and coin money
if you were blind
or just fishing in your pocket
i got used to it
after awhile
then the metro cards came
disgusting
little pieces of hard stock paper
that registered one trip
100 trips
the daily commuters nabbed them up for the savings
transit offered
but i knew what they really were
another way for "big brother" to watch us
first the easy pass
then the metro cards
then suddenly the government would know
where you had been all damn day long
i passed on the blasphemous piece of hard paper
and stayed with the tokens
defiant i would walk past the short lines at the metro card machines
and wait on the long line at the token booth
then i would demand to the teller
"TOKEN NOT CARD"
i loved the feel of the little metal bagel in my fingers
now they're doing away with the token
it's going into the great nyc grave-yard of our dreams
and perhaps a museum or two
it's taking its place in the land of yester-year joining the ranks of
checker cabs
phone booths
mom&pop book stores
free sunday parking
smoky bars
smoking anywhere
little italy (long been eaten by chinatown..there's only one block left)
a neighborhood in manhattan that struggling artists, writers, actors and musicians can afford to live in
time square sleazy (some of it we hated, some of it we loved, but it was part of us)
sex clubs (unless you count starbucks after 10pm)
little poland (been eaten up by the east village)
the jewish lower-east-side bargain district (now it's the hispanic lower-east-side bargain district...same low prices, but no haggling, no smoked salmon, no kosher pastrami, no decent braziers, no dried fruit and nut outdoor vendors and no laughing rabbis)...
bialys- where the hell are they...bagels everywhere but not a bialy in sight
and yes..they are different!
well...i could go on forever
but you get the drift
i don't miss the high crime era of nyc
i'm glad the crime is gone
but i'm watching my city turn into
something nice, clean, sanitized....
it's the color, the multi-ethnic mish mash of all walks of life, the poor, the middle-class and yes the rich all shoved together
all pushing their tokens into the turnstile, millionaires, pink haired punkers, welfare moms, painters, writers, bankers, chefs...shoved together on the train during rush hour, doing the subway stare...
it's all this that sets nyc apart from the world
don't take away the token
it's the last link to the glorious gritty past
it's my coming of age
my symbol of survival
even Ratners is gone
Ratners the 100 year institution of evil old waiters
smoked sable and blintzes that would make the gods smile
i don't want a frappucino and a muffin
i want a bialy and a shmear
A SHMEAR!!!!!
doesn't anyone remember shmears??
sigh
