Yesterday, at about 5:00 p.m., I was waiting on the platform at 59th and Lexington for the downtown 6 subway. I was waiting all the way at the front of the platform, and there were some open seats on the few benches that were there, so I sat down and listened to some Foo Fighters on my iPod.  Since it’s a Sunday schedule, and I had just missed a train, I knew it would be about 10 to 15 minutes before the next one came.

As I was sitting there, some of the seats on the benches started to fill up with shoppers, but the seat next to me remained unoccupied (did I smell?).  Then, just as a song was ending, I noticed an older man and woman approach my bench, the man taking the empty seat next to me.  Since the older woman had no where to sit, I got up and gave her my seat.

Because the song on my iPod just ended, I could hear when the lady and man looked at the person next to them on the bench and said, “I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be rude?”

It makes me kind of sad that we have such a bad reputation.

P.S. Is it me, or was the older man rude by not allowing the woman the empty seat?