MARTA: Give me your socks for a song?

I take the subway.

The MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) does, indeed, serve Metro Atlanta. The "Rapid" part is debatable, since I frequently seem to end up on trains that get stopped for some reason. I'm a little unclear as to why a train (or rather, a train conductor) feels the need to stop in the middle of tracks (usually on an elevated part), since the MARTA runs only in four directions. It's a very simple system. The MARTA line forms a large cross through the middle of downtown Atlanta--the hub being Five Points. The line I take to school is the East line, and I only live six stops from GSU.

But a lot can happen in six stops.

A couple of days ago I hopped on the MARTA after school and began the "rapid" transit home. I was sitting in my seat near the door, staring at the ridiculous billboards, when a man impatiently stepped on at the next stop. He spent a few moments re-arranging his duffle bag, his plastic shopping bag (which was rather tattered), and a large black garbage bag. He sang a little under his breath as he organized his belongings, and when he seemed situated, he realized that he had chosen the wrong location for his ride, and promptly moved everything directly in front of one set of the train's doors. He piled his various bags together in a mound, staddled them (facing the train doors), took a very worn piece of paper out of his back pocket, and began to sing.

Now, when I say "sing," I don't mean to imply that he sang quietly, or non-chalantly. He full out SANG. He didn't leg tap--he full body knee bounced. He gestured his his arms, indicating the train door window or himself, he pointed and winked at the train door window, and he performed some semi-dance steps (remember, he's straddling three bags, so this was mostly accomplished with his hips and some pelvic thrusts directed at the train door). His choreographer had incorporated a number of Motown-esque dance moves, and he passionately arm-swooped and back-stepped at the MARTA train door.

He was actually pretty good.

But this isn't the strange part. The man was obviously practicing--he re-sang lines, tried hitting different notes, forgot a word and had to check his piece of paper--he must have had a rehearsal or audition of some kind. He kept checking his watch, and I could only assume he, too, was unimpressed at MARTA's inclusion of "rapid" in their name, and was simply warming up on the train.

Here's the strange part. As he danced and leg bounced and gestured at the door, one of the bags between his legs--the black trash bag--came partly open. The black wispy plastic fell limp, and the contents of the entire bag were revealed--some even scatted out across the floor. And what was the bag full of?

Socks. An entire kitchen sized trash bag full of men's white athletic socks--still with the wrappers around them all. And all I could think was "My God. What does this man need with a hundred pairs of white socks?" Because there was AT LEAST a hundred pairs of socks in that bag.

As I reached my stop, he introduced himself, announced that he would be singing at GSU at some indefinite time in the future, invited me (and the car in general) to his performance, made me repeat his name, and then berated me for not repeating it enthusiastically enough.

And I have to admit, I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying at that point, because it had suddenly dawned on me how many sock puppets I could make with those socks.

A LOT.