Saturday 7 December 2019

An elderly gentleman; incident on a train


Rather than dive into the heaving underground at Waterloo I much prefer to get around London by bike.  

My bike, not Boris’.

It's very simple. It's a five minute ride to my station and I make sure I get into the carriage marked for bicycles. 

Yesterday I hauled my bike onto the train and a couple of young men were sitting on the fold down seats where the cycles are meant to go. There were other empty seats for them to use. So, being English, I didn’t say anything, but stood waiting, expecting them to see me and do the polite thing.

Nothing happened.

So I leaned forward and said, ‘Excuse me, do you mind moving to those empty seats, this is the place for bikes.’

One them looked up from his mobile and said curtly, ‘And for seats’.

I took that as a no, and was resigning myself to standing holding my bike the whole way to Waterloo.

Then, unexpectedly, another young man spoke up. The tone was not abrasive, but to the point.

‘Come on guys don’t be such assholes.’

The two sitters looked uncomfortable, but there was no movement.

My defender spoke again.

‘If you don’t move this elderly gentleman will have to stand with his bike’.

I was rather surprised to be called elderly; but I suppose at sixty one I am.

Rather shyly one of the sitters said he just needed to finish off a text. Then they moved.

I thanked them, and so everyone in the carriage could hear, I said to my defender:

‘And thank you, sir’.

I sat opposite my defender and said it was the small things in life that show character, and that he had done the sitters a favour. I can’t remember what he said, and we sat in silence till Waterloo.

As I was getting off, he patted me on the shoulder and said, ‘Have a great day’.

I had been surprised by the refusal of the sitters to move; but I was mightily encouraged by the young man who spoke up for me.

He could easily have kept quiet. It was none of his business. And it was not dramatically important. A sixty something man has to stand for forty-five minutes on a train.

But for my defender it was important and he spoke up, and – to give the sitters their due – they almost immediately gave in to his voice of reason.

In Bono Vince.


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