The Concrete Jungle Chronicles: Class is now in Session: Train Hygiene 101

Sign reads: Persons emanating foul body odor in contained spaces may be reported and cited for olfactory violation. Can be found in any local train!

Now originally when we started this blog I took diligent notes throughout the day of things that happened so I could share later. Needless to say that technique has since been thrown out the window, and the last time I kept a note was dated Aug 13 so lets rewind back to that day.

I remember this day like it was yesterday…… There I was sitting on the train minding my business when a gentleman takes the liberty to sit next to me. Now usually this is not a problem, people sit next to you all the time, but the problem with this situation was that the man smelt like 5 day old cafeteria food. You know that smell that takes you back to grade school where you had the cheese square pizza’s and nasty “apple sauce” for desert. For the life of me I could not hold my breath long enough until he got of the train, so I sat there inhaling the aroma for several stops, praying I would somehow get use to the smell. Thankfully he got off and took the smell with him, but that was the longest 7min of my life! Hold on it gets better……….just when I thought it would be smooth sailing and I would ride home in peace leaving the smell behind me……… a young girl enters the train….at this point there were no seats available so she had to stand, what happens next I or anybody else for that matter was prepared for………………………….. she lifts her arm to hold on to the over head bar rail and Lord and behold an immense amount of underarm hair escapes from her arm pits! I kid you not it literally looked like that axe commercial where the girl is riding on that bike with the longest armpit hair known to man (refer to pic below). I sat there stunned to what I was witnessing. Why hadn’t her mom or friends told her she had a situation on her hands that needed to be dealt with immediately! I thought about making a citizens arrest because this was an ultimate crime in public humiliation, but realized it wasn’t my place, so I watched as she rode off into the night to face more public stares and humiliation.

There are so many more other stories I can recount in regards to hygiene issues on the train but in the mean time I’ll leave with this: Train riders, PLEASE CLEAN RESPONSIBLY. It is not fair to subject innocent bystanders to foul odors and or disgraceful armpit hair.