A little note from a Philly expatriate currently living in central North Carolina who took a trip home to all that is Philly and she remembered some of the good while experiencing some of the too-soon-forgotten bad...
I moved to rural NC in early 08 and came back home to Philly in September. Guess I got so cozy in the hospitable South, that I forgot my 22 years commuting on SEPTA.
Instead of facing the traffic and driving from Media into Center City, I decide to take the trolley and El. Inside the piss-infested windowless station, I found a crumpled schedule and read how I could get an all day pass for $8. Great, I thought, I need to go to several places and this will help. Stupidly thought, anyway.
It's the middle of the day and I board the nearly empty trolley, smile (as I've been retrained to do down here) and said, "I'd like to purchase a day pass." "Not here," says the driver without so much as turning her neck to glance at me. I wait for more information. None coming. She is totally ignoring me. Sigh. "Well, I'm visiting from out of state and I'm going into town and need a transfer." "No change," she replies with about as much interest in me as an air molecule. Poor tourists...
There's a TOTAL disconnect between SEPTA PR and SEPTA workers. The schedule makes it sound so easy to be a visitor. The drivers treat you like you're just another Philly cockroach in their way. How could I have forgotten this in just under a year? Silly me.
My last 2 years of commuting required passing through colorful 69th St. I think what finalized my decision to leave Philly was the day two seeing-eye dogs were in a vicious fight next to the customer service booths and no one was blinking an eye.
Not all SEPTA memories are bad. There was the time I left my purse behind on Christmas Eve - the driver turned it in and the many SEPTA folks I dealt with that day could not have been kinder. I slid a nice tip to a few of them that day!
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