Dear Parent in Front of Me in the Drop Off Line...

[LibertyLover]

47. I work in DC and use the Metro to get to and from work

Believe me when I tell you that I understand exactly what you mean. I cannot count the number of times, especially in the summer, when one or more tourons (a National Park Service friend gave me that word - apparently it's used a lot in the NPS) get on the escalator and either don't move to the right so that walkers can get by them or stop and stand right at the end of the escalator. It's frightening because so many seem to be rather fragile looking older people or parents with young children. In one instance that I saw, and almost got to participate in, last summer, a family group of 7 or 8 people strolled leisurely to the escalator at the end of the line station, stood at the top debating dinner choices, got mad as commuters walked between them to get to the escalator to get out of the station and go home to their own dinners, and finally got onto the escalator en masse with granny and gramps in front. When granny and gramps got to the bottom, they stopped to wait for the rest of the brood, who all got off and then continued their conversation regarding dinner and the next day's sightseeing plans tightly clustered around the bottom of the escalator. In an effort to avoid these idiots several commuters had to move back up the escalator steps (always fun) while yelling at them to move. Finally one commuter had enough and simply pushed her way through the obstruction, almost knocking granny over in the process (commuter did apologize reasonably politely). Granny started to scream several rather vile racists comments at the retreating commuter's back. At that, one of the Metro clerks came over and made the group move, which they did protesting that they were just talking. Oy