I was not alone. There were a little 300 people that congregated at 3pm at the Alewife T stop at the end of the red line. Here were the terms of No Pants from BostonSOS:
- You must be willing to participate (as in take your pants off in public)
- You must be able to keep a straight face about it and act perfectly normal. Save the partying for after... (more on this later)
- You don't know any of these other people and you don't know why they also aren't wearing pants. Don't talk to them! Don't even look at them! Not looking at the other participants will greatly help in keeping a straight face.
- Wear relatively modest underwear (no thongs!) and preferably an extra pair of underwear underneath! IT IS COLD and an extra pair will not only help keep you warm but diminish the risk of "wardrobe malfunctions" (and the subsequent trip to the police station).
The instructions were simple, we were going to split up into groups. Each group was assigned a train car. That group was then broken up into smaller groups of about 4 people, and each of those people we given a train stop that they were going to get off at. The stop before their assigned stop, each person would calmly take their pants off, and get off the train at their stop. Now, they would wait at the stop until the next train and get on. They would then ride this to Park St., and then follow the same pattern back to Alewife, with their pants off the whole time.
The rest of the post is my personal experience with no pants. I could barely contain my excitement on the way to Alewife. I dragged along my friends Dave and Andre, and they brought their friends Anita and Carl. The 5 of us grouped up and arrived at Alewife, eager to go. There were a bunch of people kind of hanging around the station, everyone waiting to take part in the festivities, unsure of where exactly to go. That's until everyone began to notice the subtle sign that was posted on one of the station signs:
Yes, we made it. Next, James Cobalt, the brains of the operation, took the five of us and placed us into a train car group with about 30 people. We were led by Eddric, a great guy who gave us our next instructions. First, we needed to be split into our smaller groups for the individual cars. Luckily for us, the five of us were placed in a group together. Unluckily for us, our stop was Charles MGH, the only stop that was outdoors. Not only would we have to be waiting outside for the next train, but we would be pantless. Eddric asked if we were up for the challenge, and before I really thought about it I yes no problem. We waited around a little longer, and then we finally got the signal to board the train. We all spread out on our car, I pulled out a crossword puzzle and waited for the show to begin.
Almost immediately after the train started, the people getting off at the first stop began removing their pants. Even though all the people on this train were all involved in the hoax at this point, it was still pretty funny to see. The train stopped at its first stop, and a few passengers boarded the train. One guy in his older 20s sat right next to Anita, who was still fully clothed at this point. Immediately after the train started, a few more people took off the pants, two of whom were right in front of this guy. I looked up at the right moment to see this guy have a look of shock and fear at the same time. He quickly turned to Anita and asked what was going on, and she replied that she did not know, with a little bit of shock and confusion. The man had no idea what to do.
A few more stops went by, and it was now our moment. We were the only people left on the train that were going to be taking our pants off, and there were now a good amount of people who had come on the train that had no idea what was going on. An older couple in our section was particularly confused, asking everyone around them if they knew what was going on. At one point, the woman made eye contact with me as she was asking, to which I gave her a shrug and went back to my crossword. About a minute later, I was now taking off my pants, and the woman had no idea to react. She began to ask her husband what she should do. She even asked him if she should take a picture. At this point, her husband really didnt want anything to do with what was going on, and turned away from the spectacle. The train stopped and we got off at our stop.
At first, it was not cold at all. I think it was the adrenaline. About 30 pantless riders were lined down the stop, and the people waiting across the tracks just kind of stared. Others completely ignored us. There was a hotel near the platform, and a few people were looking down at us from the windows, utterly confused. The next train arrived, and we boarded to find a new group of riders, as well as our pantless friends. We rode this train one more stop until Park Street, where every pantless rider exited the train. Park Street was pretty packed and I don't think a lot of people knew what to make of the situation. One guy who was playing guitar began singing about "people riding the red line in their underwear, what the heck is going on here." The next train then arrived back to Alewife, and the pantless posse got on. My small group got back off at Charles MGH, where this time I felt the cold a little bit more.
Our final train of the day arrived, and we got on. I made sure to find a seat right in between two people fully pants and squished my way between them. Right when we got on, one girl realized that the pantless T ride was happening today, and she got mad at herself for not going. It's never too late to get pantless on No Pants day, however, she went back to talking to her friend as I continued to chip away at my crossword. This was about the time when one guy in his mid 40s began to get pretty frustrated. He saw all these people on the T with no pants, but he had no idea what was going on. He turned to my friend Dave to ask him why everyone was not wearing pants, and the conversation went like this:
Aggrevated Man with Beard: "So you guys are pledging for a frat right?"
Dave: "I'm sorry, I don't have any frats at my University"
Dave: "I have no idea why no one is wearing pants, I just left mine at my apartment"
Beard man: *turns away in utter frustration*
It was a great moment, and it was hard for me not to laugh. We got to our final destination at Alewife, we we had started about an hour and a half ago, and the celebration began. Although most of us had come into this event not knowing each other, we all bunched together for a group photo:
Success. The ride back to Northeastern was mostly pantless, and when we put our pants back on, everything felt a little different. I felt like I could take on the world, or at least be pantless in public without embarassment.
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