the train game and subway surfing.

from "Ruckus Manhattan" (1976)

Ruckus Revival
Red Grooms, Mimi Cross
and The Ruckus Construction Company

in order for me to get to my high school up in the bronx, i used to ride the 1 train from 14th street all the way up to it's last stop at 242nd street. the ride was about an hour and it would have been long and boring if it weren't for the fact that i always ended up riding it with a large group of friends.

to pass the time we used to do all sorts of things, i have mentioned in previous posts, things like smoking cigarettes between cars and mooning the people on the other side of the tracks. but one thing that was a great time and almost endless amounts of exercise was an invention we called "train game". it was simply a game where there were 2 teams sitting in opposing seats looking across at each other and the object was to bounce a tennis ball off the ground so it would come back up and clear the space over the overhead bars that people hold onto for support. then there would be the "rebound" where the teams needed to recover the ball for another attempt at scoring.

it started with us actually keeping score, but eventually it evolved into a free for all brawl. i'd say that the evolution took no less then a month. by the end of the first month we even stopped bringing a tennis ball. instead somebody would ball up a brown paper bag from the deli. so it kind of became a game where somebody would throw the paper ball and then both teams would jump up off the seats and proceed to beat the shit out of each other to try to get the wad of paper, but really, we basically ignored the wad. it was more like the wad became the impetus to start the fight and then if somebody picked it up you were supposed to stop punching or kicking whomever you were closest too and sit down again. imagine all this happening while the train lurches back and forth on the tracks, slowing down and speeding up to toss us as we fought. adding whole new levels of difficulty to the violence.

things happened like people got kicked and wedged under the seats, one guy got kicked so hard in the face by a sneaker that he had "NIKE" written backwards on his forehead for a week. but the best part of the game for me, besides sanctioned ass kicking. was the reactions of the other people on the train.

we usually stopped when the doors opened so people would get on unaware of what was about to happen. we usually took up a whole section of seats so nobody really sat in our area, but they might be standing near us or just sitting in the next row not realizing that the large group of kids near them were a few seconds from jumping up into an ultra violent explosion.

when the wad would get thrown, people gasped and quickly ran to the other car thinking that the fight was real. the best stop was 116th street. this was the stop where large groups of Columbia students would get on. these students were mostly NOT new yorkers and were already a bit on the tense side about being in a new city with unknown dangers lurking everywhere. they were always the most surprised. and since they were not that much older, we cared even less if they were standing or sitting near us.

they would literally scream when suddenly all of jumped up and launched ourselves into battle. there would be a rush for the exit doors like somebody lit a bomb. it was very funny if you're into that kind of thing, which i am. sometimes when the ball of paper got picked up and we sat down like nothing had just happened, except for being heavy of breath, you could see people visibly relieved that we were just crazy kids and not out to kill anybody.

another bit of fun was something we called "subway surfing". i don't recommend this to anybody because its absolutely the most dangerous thing you can possibly do regarding the subway, besides jumping into the tracks with a train coming. one of my friends actually got knocked out and ended up with a concussion by smashing his head into a steel pillar.

to surf a train what you have to do is exit the train and wait for the doors to close. usually the conductor in the middle car is the guy who has to check and make sure all the doors are closed and that nobody is half in or out. wait for this guy to look in the direction you are in. then wait for the moment when the train brakes make the release sound, that's the sound of air escaping a pressurized valve right before the train moves. at that moment step onto the little ledge that sticks out from the doors. then grab the little lip above the door with the hand closest to the train, for a local this would be your left hand (my strong hand). the lip is there to drain rain water so it doesn't drip on people as they get on and off, but it also is a perfect little handle. then the idea is to ride that mofo until you have gotten to running speed. if you don't jump off soon enough and the train is going faster then you can run then you will face plant into a pillar like my friend or just skid on you front side across some rather filthy concrete. so timing was everything. sometimes the train would take a while to speed up so you could ride for a while. it was...fun. i swear.