Metro Observation #2

On the way to Foggy Bottom today, a raggedly dressed man got on our train car. He was older, a bit disheveled. I didn’t think too much about him. I assumed he probably was one of these people that ride around the Metro all day. Much like some of the townies in Blacksburg rode the transit buses all day long.

But then on a later stop, another older, disheveled man boarded our car and asked disheveled man #1 for some change (I believe for the exit fare). Now I probably wouldn’t even be writing about these men if it weren’t for when #1 reached into his pocket to get some money for #2. He pulled out a dark object and at first I thought it was a wallet or a change purse. But no, it was a sock. And in his sock was this man’s money.

Now I’ve seen people carry around money in their sock if they are wearing clothes that don’t have any pockets (such as gym shorts or thongs). But this guy pulled out a long black tube sock out of his pocket. He wasn’t even wearing it. He was carrying it.

This just seemed to bother me for some odd reason. Why doesn’t he just use his pocket? Does it have holes in it? Does he not trust his pockets? It’s a mystery to me.

I wanted to ask him why he kept his money in a sock. Was he worried about people stealing his wallet and not assume people would take a sock? I wanted to interview him about his sorting technique. Did he just use it for coins? Or did he throw in both bills and coins? And did he exclusively use it for money? Or just an all around catch-all? Perhaps he kept it filled with coins to use it as both a container and possible weapon to defend himself with.

I wanted answers to my questions, but I never got them. Seriously, who wants to chat it up with the creepy looking guy on the Metro? Not me. I’ll let my imagination figure out the answers.

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