Brawl on MetroNorth

...or at least, the closest thing I've seen to one yet.

On the B train from Brooklyn to Manhattan, if someone were talking loudly on their cell phone for a while, and half the conversation consisted of her saying, "I've got such a bad signal right now! What did you say?!" She would have been given dirty looks by everyone around her, and likely more than one person would tell her to "shut the fuck up" in various colorful ways. And, she would likely switch back and forth between continuing her phone conversation and telling the other passengers to mind their own fucking business. And I'd probably just continue reading my book & chuckle to myself while making sure I was standing in a position clear of any shoving, spitting, or other physical unpleasantries that may be exchanged.

The setup on MetroNorth this morning was the same. I was sitting next to a woman who was being extremely loud on her cell phone. She didn't notice the eyerolling of the other passengers and hung up after about 15 minutes. But then a few minutes later, she broke the pleasant silence of the ride with a sudden, "HI! IT'S KELLY! YEAH I'M ON THE TRAIN!..." causing a few people to jump, startled. While others murmured about how rude she is, up stands one well-dressed grey-haired man who leans over in her direction and says, "Excuse me, Kelly. KELLY. (She turns toward him) It is is very inappropriate for you to talk on your phone the entire ride. It's upsetting everyone. Now shut up."

Aside from the "shut up" part, he was downright polite. She ended her call and announced to everyone that she was sorry. Then, while hiding her face behind her long hair, she started quietly crying to herself. She was sniffling and wiping tears from her eyes. I considered offering a tissue but we were just about to arrive at Grand Central anyway and I figured it would only draw more attention to her, which was apparently the last thing she wanted.

The way the whole thing unfolded seemed to be much more civil in some ways than how it would typically go down on the NYC subway. Somehow, though, it made me very uncomfortable. Seeing the obnoxious person reduced to tears because of a mild scolding from one stranger was much more upsetting to me than seeing aggressive people yell at each other and tell each other to go fuck themselves. I'm sure there's a lesson for me in here somewhere but I haven't figured out what it is yet.