BUS STORY # 87 (The Subway Chronicles)

My daughter introduced me to The Subway Chronicles. She did this by sending me a story about a father introducing his daughter to the subway. It’s a wonderful essay about the subway, about New York City, about an attentive and sometimes worried father, and a daughter for whom all the real world – even the world of the subway – is a place of wonder.

I’ve linked to Featured Essays because this is where the heart of this site really is. The essays are written by different people and appear monthly. (There are gaps. At first, I assumed submissions for a given month didn’t make the grade, and so nothing was published. Later, I discovered the marketing of the book, The Subway Chronicles, and found essays in the table of contents not found on the Featured Essays page. I’m guessing the site got raided so we’d buy the book. I’m disappointed I can’t view Francine Prose’s essay on line.)

The essays are wide ranging, linked by the common thread of the subway experience and the intertwined experience of living in NYC. Still, and perhaps not all that surprising, the human experience explored in these essays is anything but remote from the rest of us, regardless of where we live or how we get around.

Here are a couple of sentences from Hideous Things My Child Witnessed, by Michael Ahn. And, yes, this is the story my daughter sent me.

The day we saw the Pus Man and his brother was the day I briefly considered using other modes of transportation around New York City . . . The truth is that Emily and I share an enjoyment of extremes and as a four year-old, she is shameless about what interests her.  — Hidious Things My Child Witnessed

Next week: This Week In.

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The marvelous photo at the top of this story is posted with the kind permission of carmnyc. This particular photo is from his collection, The City In Motion. You can see this collection, as well as all of carmnyc’s work on Flickr, at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carmnyc/