A WORD experimental journalism project about the commuting realities of Hunter Students Originally published October 12, 2009
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February 26, 2009, 3:05 p.m. Staten Island Ferry, Staten Island-bound
The Hurricane Deck of the Guy V. Molinari Ferry is roped off. About seven or eight men sit in the seats that face each other and they pass around beer in green bottles (name indeterminable), while one passes around a bottle opener attached to a key chain. Some have neon green tape measures clipped to their denim jean pockets; one man is holding a Nokia flip phone. Another is dressed in business casual attire and sports glasses; he may or may not be their boss. Light-hearted conversation ensues.
A man with a bottle of Heineken beer walks by, sporting black jeans, a gray-and-black plaid jacket, and a blue nylon backpack that closes with the same rope used to wear around one’s shoulders. A woman sitting next to the beer-drinking men in construction attire is wearing a black denim jacket a white turtleneck sweater and turquoise straight-leg pants and white socks with white Nike sneakers. She has her brown shoulder bag – leather or “pleather” – on her lap, which she extraordinarily balances as she sits cross-legged in her seat, working on a crossword puzzle.
A deckhand approaches the men who are drinking and talking, as now they are eating and passing cake around, and is offered cake by the man with the glasses; he politely accepts, asks for a plastic fork, and wants to try “one bite.” He licks the plastic fork after devouring the piece of cake and thanks the guys for the offer.
The PA tells the deckhands that the ride is almost over; they are to go to their stations to get ready to dock and every passenger must leave the ferry. The woman in the turquoise pants gets up and walks over to the stairwell, this stairwell leads down to the main deck – the Saloon Deck – of the ferry where passengers board and disembark. In the stairwell, conversations continue: people are discussing plans, talk about people they know issues regarding musicians. The ferry docks and the passengers depart.
March 4, 2009, 7:22 p.m. Staten Island Ferry, Staten Island-bound
The PA is automated with a soft, cool female voice. Because it is now dark outside, one can only see the lights from the other ferry docking at Whitehall Terminal; it is arriving from Staten Island. Also, through the darkness outside, the Jersey City skyline is visible across the Hudson River.
Conversations in Russian can be overheard between a woman and a man, the woman is doing most of the talking. A girl sits two seats away from the Russian-speaking woman’s left. She has dark red hair, a navy blue jacket, spring green-colored scarf, a big brown – leather? – handbag, figure-hugging blue pants and gray – pleather? – boots that come up to an inch below the knee; the top of each boot is fashionably folded down. She has an iPod Touch or an iPhone in her hand, decorated with stickers on the backside, and she is watching a video on it.
A woman two seats to the left of the iPod Touch Girl, wears a black – fur? – coat, has a brown-and-light-brown checker-patterned handbag. Her pants seem to be of a thick fabric and have tiny black-and-white patterns that give the gray-colored illusion from afar. She may be white or Hispanic, and has a dark maroon hair color with blond streaks in it. The Russian-speaking woman just said “Are you serious?” in English. The white or Hispanic woman is reading US Weekly. A man dressed in a black pea coat and black trousers wears a contrasting gray-and-baby blue scarf, which looks hand-knitten. He has on thin-framed glasses and has low-cut brown hair. His briefcase, which has to option to become a wheeled-bag, has a pocket on the outside, which houses his very old-school blackberry – probably a Nextel because it has an antenna.
The ferry is docking.
March 23, 2009, 9:15 a.m. S48 bus to Staten Island Ferry (Forest Avenue and Broadway)
An obnoxiously loud music ringtone goes off from a cell phone in the custody of a couple with a guy dressed in a black North Fsace jacket, a baseball cap and dark blue jeans; and the female is dressed in black sweat pants, also a black jacket, not a North Face but a bubble jacket, and she has long, dark curly hair up in a ponytail.
In a few stops – Bard Ave. and Forest Ave. – a man, about 26, gets on with the New York Times Crossword section open. He’s wearing white khaki pants and a baggy gray winter jacket. He sits down, pulls out a red pen and continues his crossword puzzle.
A white woman of about 20 sits near the back of the bus. She has on a black pea coat, a baby blue handbag – more of a shoulder bag full of books actually – black tights, and knee-high faux leather boots. She is wearing pink headphones, hoop earrings, and chews gum while bopping her head to the music emanating from her headphones.
March 26, 2009, 2:30 p.m. IRT 6, Brooklyn Bridge Bound
Two Asian women sit by the middle door of the second car. One carries a red plastic bag, and out of that bag she withdraws an orange, or it might be a grapefruit (because the flesh is darker). She offers some to the second woman, almost forcefully and insistently, but number two refuses politely. She is wearing a wind breaker-style purple jacket (more of a winter jacket), has a black shoulder bag and dark blue jeans, with black-and-white sneakers.
The woman with the fruit wears black track pants with a single brown stripe going down either leg, black sneakers and a similar jacket as her friend, but in a cream coffee color. She opens up her red bag with fruit, tips it sideways and pours some of the water out of it onto the floor.
A man, of perhaps Indian descent (from India, not Native American like some falsely believe to be “Indian”), wears a gray/charcoal-colored suit with a faint white plaid pattern, a blue dress shirt and a gold-and-orange patterned tie. He sports a sporty backpack, which does not seem to go at all with his attire; welcome to New York City. He gets off at 23rd Street.
A man diagonally opposite from the Asian women sits with his shoulder bag perched on his lap. This bag is beige and has the poison scull with the crisscrossing bones below it. He may be of Mexican descent and he is reading El Diario. He yawns. His hooded sweatshirt has thin black-and-gray stripes, or they could be a very dark brown and very light brown pattern of stripes. He gets off at Bleecker Street.
A 5 train rushes past and will obviously make it to the Brooklyn Bridge stop before this 6 does. The car sits at Bleecker Street. This particular car is full of Budweiser ads on one side and Metro PCS ads on the other side. The digital display reads 2:41 p.m., with Canal Street as the next stop. The train is delayed because of train traffic ahead. The commuters are told to “please be patient.” Another 5 train zooms by on the express track.
At Canal Street, the remaining passengers leave the car, and two people remain on the train taking it to its final destination: Brooklyn Bridge. At the Brooklyn Bridge transfer point, a man in black-and-white pumas, blue jeans, and a black pea coat, with a blue-and-white scarf wrapped around his neck reads a book with a blue-and-black cover, title indeterminable.
The waft of fresh popcorn fills the Saloon deck as passengers board it. Spring in bloom but there are still people wearing thick or winter jackets, not chancing the risk of getting sick. A young man, in his mid-20s, wearing a long trench coat, a shoulder bag and black-striped pants leans on his long umbrella, as if it were a cane. He is either reading the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.
An elderly woman walks up to the Staten Island side of the ferry and stands by one of the windows with her back facing the fog-riddled river. Her hairdo is a short gray bob, and she is dressed in black from head to toe. Her oversized handbag has red on its sides. The only things contrasting on her are her hair color and the red on her bag.
March 30, 20097:22 p.m. Staten Island Ferry, Staten Island-bound
From head to toe, she has flyaway curly golden-brown hair, tanned skin (naturally tanned), and a stud nose-ring. She is reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns.” Her brown pea coat extends to her knees and her designer handbag (designer unknown) sits in her lap. Her beige-colored pants and leopard print brown-and-beige shoes complete the look of this young woman matching from head to toe.
Sitting on the Brooklyn-facing side of the ferry, a skinny guys listens to his iPod Touch or his iPhone, as he awaits the end of this 25-minute ferry ride. He’s wearing torn jeans (torn strategically by their designer – perhaps Express or Gap), older-looking (or worn-looking) Nike sneakers with a white-and-black checker pattern on either side and on the area above the toes. His dark charcoal-gray sweater reveals that he has a baby blue button-down shirt underneath. His winter jacket is in the vacant seat next to him. His hair is pushed up on either side to the center (Mohawk style) and he sports a faded beard, it is well-maintained.
Two police officers patrolling the ferry walk across the second level and walk up the stairs. Both were white, and had on sweaters instead of the typical dress shirts that officers usually wear. One was about 6-feet tall and the other was about 5-foot-8.
April 22, 2009 3:35 p.m. Uptown 6 Train
It is Earth Day, Happy Earth Day. The most colorful ads on the train are a Dr. Zizmore ad and a “HOPE” ad about Jesus Christ. An olive-skinned couple enters the train at Spring Street, tourists by the looks of it. The man is wearing a black fanny pack, blue jeans, and a black jacket. His wife, whom takes a seat, is sporting jeans, pink sneakers, an orange scarf, and a brown fabric jacket. On her lap rests a backpack and her super-small umbrella is hanging between her legs dripping any remaining droplets of water onto the train car floor. The husband sits down next to his wife at the Union Square stop as some seats become available from the exiting passengers.
An Asian man stands by the door. He is dressed in all black, black sneakers, black dress pants with very dark charcoal-colored vertical stripes, a black sweater and a black blazer. He has salt-and-pepper hair and a black backpack. He has on rim-less glasses and pulls out a silver mobile phone and begins to snap a few photos; it is obvious he is snapping photos because his phone makes the camera shutter noise.
At Grand Central, the voice tells the passengers to “stand clear of the closing doors, please,” as they remain open for three or four repetitions of the same command. As the train progresses through the tunnel to 51st Street, a woman with short, brown hair kneels down to tie a shoelace on her red sneakers. Her brown bubble jacket is too wintry, but she looks comfortable. She makes a play cat’s claw and pretends to claw at her girlfriend; her girlfriend is dressed in all black save for her dark blue jeans.
April 30, 2009 2:25 p.m. IRT 6 Brooklyn Bridge-bound
At 68th Street, a woman in black tights and a plain white sweater and white New Balances sits with a young girl who is dressed in a yellow coat, white pants and brown boots. I assume they are mother and daughter though my WORD editor would probably insist that I officially corroborate my assumption. Nevertheless, mom socializes with her daughter in a different language and her daughter responds in English. The mother’s hair is neat and straight, pulled back into a bun, while her daughter’s hair is curly and frizzy, also pulled back into a bun.
At the 14th Street stop, half of the passengers exit the car leaving enough room for two gentlemen left standing to sit, but they are too busy reading their papers. At Bleecker Street, the couple exits the train.