The subway was a scary place in the 80's

not just because crime was rampant everywhere and people like Bernhard Goetz were getting fed up and spraying would-be muggers with bullets, but because they were poorly wired.

i remember that choosing to take the train to school was always a wild ride. first of all the trains would pull in and they were covered with graffiti. literally from the ground up, even the windows were so sprayed that often they were completely opaque. one time a train pulled in and the car i ended up getting on had been sprayed on the outside to look like a medieval dungeon, the doors were painted like wooden doors with bars for windows, and the rocks even had mold and moss on them. it was actually quite spectacular.

what pops into my head when i am riding the new trains, all brightly lit and clean. is that back then, the train would lose its lights in the middle of the tunnel, often for extended periods of time. it would go completely black. the only lighting coming from the tunnel light bulbs that were whizzing by. the windows were always broken in the open position so there was always a dank, pissy, smell wafting through. the smell of piss came from the fact that there were thousands of homeless living down there in the tunnels. they were formally called Mole people. so not only did it reek, but it was always very loud because the sound of the metal wheels scrapping the tracks would be broadcast through the open windows. so it was like sensory overload. but it was really the darkness that freaked me out as a kid.

it was like i was deep down under the earth, possibly heading for hell, and the only sense that wasn't bombarded, hopefully, was my sense of taste.

i also remember that when the lights would pop back on, you could see it happening car by car, coming from the front to the back. and everybody on the train was suddenly revealed to be clutching their values and bracing themselves for a possible attack. i actually miss that.