Had a discussion with Uncle on the 7:53 am Oshawa train this morning. I had seen him last night on the 5:10 LSE train as it rolled by me while I was waiting for the 5:20 LSE. Uncle is one of my morning train friends.
He got his nickname from me well over a year ago, when after seeing him everyday in the same seat and catching him quietly laughing to himself at my morning conversations with my other two train friends, I equated him to the Uncle almost everyone has who comes to all the holiday dinners, eats, smiles when needed, laughs when it's appropriate, but never says anything and then just goes home when the meal is done.
He was quiet. But I broke him. It took nearly six months but I sucked him in.
Uncle got onto the train when it was at near capacity. Seated in a quad was a kid who was about 10 with a backpack on the seat beside him. Uncle asked him if he could sit and the kid said he was saving the seat. No, Uncle did not pick up the backpack and hold it front of him like a football ready for the punt, he sighed and went to sit on the dreaded three-seater, crammed between two other people. With a minute left to departure and the kid frantically texting, Uncle looks away and then looks back to see the kid running off the train.
Guess Mom couldn't make it.
Of course, we howled over this because it's not like it's the school bus. We can only imagine what Mom was texting. "Stand your ground!" Or what he was texting to his Mom. "This big man asked me to move my backpack. What should I do? I'm scared."
"Get off the train!".
Really, what do you say to a 10 year old who's saving a seat for his mom on a packed express train?
Youth really is on his side.
Maybe I'm mean but if his mother told him to save a seat for her, then she's an idiot. Really? Put a kid in that position? He must have been so nervous and uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteyup, 10 is a bit young to be wandering around downtown alone dontcha think?
ReplyDeleteeven though Im a bitch, even I probably would have let the kid get away with saving the seat for his mom.
It was awkward..... what I am to do??? I'm not gonna strong arm a 10 year old. I have 4 kids myself and I wouldn't want anyone treating my kid that way if they were in that position...... not that they would be because I'd tan their hide should they ever try to save a seat on the GO.
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