here is a story i read once. it is from Jack Stewart's dissertation titled: Subway Graffiti: An aesthetic study of graffiti on the subway system of New York City 1970 - 1978. the interview is with graffitist Tracy 168 and appears to have taken place on an elevated subway line somewhere in the Bronx in the late 1970s. every time I hear of a trageic railroad accident, i think of this story and it gives me chills.
I remember I almost got killed. This man saved my life. Ill never forget him in my life. I was hangin out of the back of the train, out like this you know, im all smilin' and you know how you goof around, and you climb on the back. i was climbing all around like a roach on the back of the train, like all around. And its movin real fast, and there are work bums [track workers] all along the train tracks. so im like "hey, look at this" and im like hanging on that ***. And I came out like hanging out the window and all of a sudden i saw this one work bum stop working. Everybody else didnt give a ****. He stopped, he kept like making faces and i thought "what is he doing? why is he doing that?" And I couldnt understand. I was like, you know, like "oh, he wants me to do a trick or sumthin', like flip around" That man....he was pointing in front of me...like that. And I sensed it in his face, because he was scared....and it must have showed in his face because he saw that he was about to see me die. I turns around and a ******* pole was about this close to my face. i pulled in just in time. i went in [the car] and I say: *******, what I would'a looked like if that **** hit me. the train was going so fast and he just looked like this: relief....they should put RIOLAIDS on his shirt. And i thought like, oh, if i knew that guy, I would give him...He saved my life.