on the subway

The other day, I am on my way home from work, on the subway, and a Very Respectable Old man is standing next to me. I know he is respectable because he has on an argyle sweater vest and those shoes with tassles on them, and who but very respectable people wear those? He is reading the New Yorker (again, very respectable) and listening to his i-pod. Then, he does something in no way respectable: he starts rocking out. He is getting down and funky, lip synching, dancing in place and really being very Mick Jagger. I am digging this quite a bit, and trying not to laugh, when another Very Respectable Old Man gets on the train. Now, he actually could kick the other Respectable Old Man's trash, because he has on a very smart looking cap, and one of those jackets with the elbow patches, and I think we can all agree that elbow patch jackets trump argyle sweater vests any day of the week. Plus, he has some really great grizzled old man sideburns. He is standing directly next to my music loving friend, who by the way is showing no sign of quitting his dancedance revolution. He looks at him over his New York Times, is understandably quite shocked at this very un-respectable display, and gives him his best I'm Very Disappointed in You Glare (which is also a very effective parenting technique), but Mick-in-Training is quite in his own little world and does not notice, so Elbow Patch Man decides to glare for the duration of the train ride. We all get off at the same stop, Man #2 glaring at Man #1 the whole way to the elevators, and then they go their separate ways, with Mick in Training jiving all the way.