Now pulling into the 96th street station: The what??? Emily Zdyrko experienced a Back to the Future moment when a 9 train stopped at 96th on Saturday night. The 9 hasn’t been seen round these parts since 2005.
“I’m pretty sure I haven’t taken the 9 train since the days when I rode it home from high school occasionally. ( I teach high school now.)”
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That’s amazing…and hilarious! I’ve lived here since 2003 and STILL refer to that line as the 1,9. And my husband (who moved here in 2007) always looks at me like, what are you talking about ?!
The 9 picked me up too, about 5 weeks ago at 96th. https://www.instagram.com/p/-mViryj_fH/
Obviously the train was just delayed. Don’t see the big deal — that happens all the time. This delay was just a little longer than most.
But no one on the train knew who Barack Obama is! Or anything called ISIS!
LOL. Very Twilight Zone.
MC, so do I! I miss the 9 train and the skip stops. I always felt it was faster and less crowded than what we get now.
Had it been REALLY-REALLY old it would have had:
1) Rattan seats, sufficiently worn so that the sharp loosened strips align perfectly with one’s rear end;
2) A vestibule featuring a huge wheel (brake wheel?) to the left of the door, at which there would be at least one 8-year-old boy staring out the window while he “drives” the train;
3) Advertising cards for the latest Ms. Subway’s contestants;
4) on the floor those strange scraps of parchment-like “skin” from the Spanish Peanuts sold in penny-vending machines on station platforms;
5) and, discarded copies of that day’s New York Daily Mirror, or The Herald Tribune, or the World-Telegram & Sun, or The New York Journal-American (which many a Jewish boychik was told to never-ever purchase because W.R. Hearst was allegedly an anti-semite (pronounced, of course, “antah-sem-mitt”, with the emphasis on the final syllable!).
Now THAT would be an OLD SUBWAY CAR!!
Thanks, Stan. To me, the #9 train was just yesterday, whereas your vivid description summons up real nostalgia, especially those straw strips that really hurt a small child’s legs during a summertime ride.
But surely it was Miss Subways?
Great stuff about the old newspapers, some of which are not missed.
And actual hanging straps.
P.S. I was that 8-year-old-boy. Thanks for remembering me.
and ceiling fans (!) as the CC Train had.
If it were an old subway car, I would have called it the Broadway Local. It would have a single door opening and signs to keep hands off the door. And of course the spring loaded hand holds that were too high for me to reach
People reading those newspapers and paper books. Seats in clusters rather than parallel with people talking to each other rather than bending over technology.
People reading those newspapers and paper books. Seats in clusters rather than parallel with people talking to each other rather than bending over cell phones, iPads and kindles.
Thank you Stan and all for the walk down memory lane. As we get older there are so many changes that one forgets great moments of the past. Each of you have brought a smile to this face and it is appreciated…..