Thursday, October 18, 2007

Pet Peeve of the Day - October 18, 2007

Lurch. No, not the character from the Addams Family.

No, Lurch is the nickname I give to this man I often see on the subway on the way to work in the morning. If I catch the 8:33 train from Hicksville to Penn Station, I usually arrive around 9:15 a.m. and make my way to the platform for the 1 Line.

It is usually only a short wait, a matter of a couple of minutes at most, before the 1 Line subway train rolls into the station. Now, when you commute on the same trains on a frequent basis, you start to notice some of the other regulars. What I end up doing for the commuters I recognize is to give them my own private nicknames. For example, there used to be this one woman around my age who was always smoking cigarettes while waiting for the train at the Long Island Rail Road station in Hicksville, and she wore this fringed leather jacket, sort of like this one, which made her look like a cowgirl. So I named her the Marlboro Girl. The Marlboro Girl really was addicted to her cigarettes. There was one time I remember where she emerged onto the platform at Hicksville just as the train was coming into the station and slowing to stop. To my utter astonishment, I watched as she whipped out a cigarette, lit it, and got at most three puffs out of it before she had to flick it away and board the non-smoking train. All I could think was "Was it really worth it?"

But anyway, back to Lurch. I first noticed him one morning this past summer. I was on the platform when the 1 Train came in. The doors to the subway car where I was waiting opened up, and there was Lurch, standing inside the doorway facing outwards as the door opened. I beheld a tall, rail thin Caucasian man with a bald head, a combined mustache and goatee, reddish patches on his cheeks, and big flaming blue eyes. He wore a sky blue suit jacket that highlighted his slender frame, accompanied by a bright colored tie. But it was those intense, slightly maniacal looking eyes that got to me. This guy was fucking scary looking!

His appearance so disturbed me that I entered the car through one of the other doors further down so I would not have to stand near him. I thought maybe I would never have to see him again, as I had not noticed him before. But as fate would have it, whenever I would take the 8:33 train into Manhattan and catch the 1 Line to my office, Lurch would almost always be there when the door opened. Lurch had become a regular. And sure enough, when I caught the 1 Line this morning, Lurch was there again. Thanks a lot Lurch! You're my pet peeve of the day.

12 comments:

tina FCD said...

Ewwww! I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone AGAIN! Yesterday, there was drive-by shooting a couple doors down across the street.At 2:00 in the afternoon mind you! I will probably blog about it.

tina FCD said...

ooo...I love the profile pic! Can't remember his name though.

Pyramidhead said...

Are you waiting to see him on americans most wanted?

SouthLoopScot said...

Ah the fun of public transportation!
I have a few characters that I encounter on the L, but nothing like Lurch, or with such frequency!

Tommykey said...

Hey Tina. The person in the pic is Faramir from the Lord of the Rings.

Greetings Pyramid and Tattooed. Tattooed, I got to ride the trains in Chicago when we were there a couple of months ago. Rode the orange line from near Midway airport and then transferred to the green line (IIRC) to go to Racine.

When the orange line got into downtown, I couldn't believe how close the train got to the windows of the apartment buildings.

Pyramidhead said...

I work with a few characters myself. I work in a group home.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot Tommy for ripping me apart on the Internet like that for all to see. Burn in hell!

The man you call Lurch.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's right you jerk! Drop dead!

Anonymous said...

Eerie.

Reminds me of the time I stepped on an elevator in the Atlanta airport and encountered a busty woman in a T shirt that read:

"If it's got tits or tires, it's TROUBLE".

Tommy, the "nony" is yours truly Bedrock. For some reason I can't get past the atheist droids that are guarding your site against unwanted intrusions by sane and rational Americans.....

Tommykey said...

but Bedrock, sanity and reason are the foundations of my blog!

You can select other and even type in Bedrock(truth) as your name. I honestly don't know why it's rejecting you. Maybe you need to update your account.

Anonymous said...

You know what Tommy? If you godless heathens would get a clue and convince your fellow godless heathens on the Mets and Yankees teams you might have had a chance to make the World Series like the Colorado Rockies did.

Not to mention the fact that last season's Superbowl teams were both led by strong Christians Tony Dungey and Lovie Smith.

Clueless in Manhattan; and everywhere else for that matter...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/sports/baseball/23rockies.html em&ex=1193371200&en=81ca34d3b22500ab&ei=5087%0A

Tommykey said...

Bedrock, I pretty much stopped paying attention to professional sports years ago. Between their outrageous salaries, the inflated ticket prices, and the fact that I could no longer fathom why I should care which team won pretty much killed it for me.