Observing the Train Gang

I have found myself in the situation where I get to observe a group of primates in their native environment.    It's interesting because a) they're a type of group with whom I don't normally associate; b) I'm a captive audience; c) as the observer I cannot directly interact with them because that would affect the experiment (which has interesting consequences, see below); and d) it passes the time.

What is this sociological test tube?    The commute home on the train.

There's a "pack" of people who ride together whose long-term ritual has led them to feel they are somehow "privileged patrons" of their own making (i.e., "regulars with an attitude").    As you can expect, this leads to very interesting interactions with the other apparently "unprivileged patrons" and gives rise to all sorts of episodes.

So, I've decided to chronicle them.   I won't name names - partly because I haven't bothered to learn them, and it's probably better (not to mention safer) to just use indirect descriptions.

So where to begin - well, we can start with a general description of "the pack".

There are about 6-10 of them on most days.   Most are female aside from one male (who is almost certainly gay), some transit personnel, and a few far-lower-ranked males (who mostly don't interact - they're generally "hangers-on" and so far haven't contributed anything interesting to the observations).

There's a weird ritual around actually getting on the train:  specifically, we're not allowed to board until the announcement is made to do so (about 10 minutes before departure), probably owing to some security policy.   This is annoying because there's about 400 people on the train when it leaves on any given day.    Quite a few of the regular commuters play the game of trying to guess which track will be the right one (it varies considerably among 10 tracks).   So there's generally three "waves" of a rush from the station to the correct platform:  1) people who have "inside information" (the theory from talking to other regulars is that someone knows someone who has dispatch information and they get a text when the track is assigned) who try to queue up at the doors of the cars as soon as possible (about 15 minutes ahead of departure);  2) people who know one of the conductors who then follow him when he gets on the train (also about 15 minutes ahead of departure - sometimes this happens without wave 1); and 3) everyone else who has been waiting for the official boarding announcement (about 10 minutes ahead of departure).   At the point of "wave 3" everyone can board, so the people who are part of waves 1 and 2 have an advantage to getting seats - and especially those people who feel they must have "their" seat on every trip.

Typically I'm in the first wave because one of the alpha females is one of the recipients of the aforementioned "inside information".   When I first started riding in their presence, I made a comment to this effect to the alpha female and it was vehemently DENIED - however, on subsequent observations, I have determined that this precisely the case, and apparently I was "not to be aware" of the special arrangement.   Many days I can anticipate which track our train will be on without her passive assistance; other days I end up being part of "wave 2".    The consequence is that I am usually in line at the car entrance ahead of "wave 3" so I get to observe the pre-boarding interactions.

Now - people line up somewhat disorderly at the car doors, but there's a _general_ sense of "first come first aboard".   Not for the Train Gang, of course.   Typically one or more of them are at the head of the line (being in wave 1), but as others arrive they - without fail - "slide into" the line at the front with their companions.    Presumably this so they have first choice of seating, and when boarding commences, politeness or courtesy be damned.    They tend to take up the seats at the end of the car (closest to the entry point) but since the actual train configuration changes daily (depending on which cars are where), the whole idea of "my seat" doesn't strictly apply.    (This is good because it avoids aggravation, but eliminates one obvious set of experiments and/or observations.  C'est la vie.)

Since I'm usually boarding after them (because I don't want to be knocked over in the rush to get into the car before everyone else), I take whatever seat is near the door (because that's where I want to sit anyway) without getting underfoot.   Typically I'm right on the periphery where I can observe "the gang".

That's the setup.

Specific "episodes" to follow (both as they happen and recollections).