Steve & Mia find romance on SEPTA

FANS of romantic comedy love stories about couples who "meet cute." But what about couples who "meet transit"?

SEPTA yesterday concluded a contest in honor of Valentine's Day (www.septa

lovestories.org), which asked riders to tell how they found love on SEPTA.

The Daily News asked its romance columnists, Steve and Mia, to investigate. Here's their report:

Steve: Hey, Mia, want to take a ride on the "Love Train"?

Mia: Not with you, Steve. That train would go nowhere.

Steve: Shame on you for dissin' Gamble and Huff.

Mia: You're off on an R&B sidetrack. We're supposed to be talking about couples who met on SEPTA.

Steve: My favorite is Mike and Jenn, who met on a Norristown High Speed Line station platform. Two years later, on the same platform, Mike asked Jenn to grab a copy of the Metro paper. She did. On the front page was the couple's picture. The headline said he was about to propose. It was a fake paper he created. Most romantic use of Photoshop ever.

Mia: That was your favorite? I liked the one about the woman who first saw her guy sleeping in the back of the bus. For their wedding song, they should change the lyrics to Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" to "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, You Were Drooling." I don't think I'd be attracted to a man sleeping in the back of the bus. Maybe if he were in the back of a limo . . .

Steve: I dunno. The last time I got in the back of a limo with a guy lying down, it was a hearse.

Mia: The most inspiring love story is the couple who tells each other "Happy Ninth" every month because that's the day of the month they met back in 1978 at the 15th and Market Street El stop. The guy wrote, "Sometimes we even stand in the same spot I first saw her. 15th and Market streets." I'm swooning. How romantic is that?

Steve: That is sweet. I'd re-create that moment with my wife too, except she was with another guy.

Mia: Better scratch that, then.

Steve: I loved the story from Krista. A guy caught her eye on the platform, waiting for the Lansdale local. She got on first and, "as he walked down the aisle, I flashed a winning smile and slid over as if to say 'Hey, sit here, Handsome.' He was so nervous, he passed right by and sat three seats behind. Feeling like a fool, I slumped down and looked out the window, vowing never to try that stunt again. Little did I know, he was drafting a note which he would later drop in my lap, 'With the possibility I might not see you again, will you have dinner with me?' "

Mia: Did they end up getting married?

Steve: Yes they did. Believe it or not the same thing happened to me once on the Chestnut Hill East line. I wrote the note and put it in my pocket. I dropped it in her lap as I left the train. When I got home and took off my coat, I realized the note was still in my pocket. I'd dropped my doctor's note about my colonoscopy in her lap.

Mia: You're such a goof. How about the woman who fell for the hot driver on the H bus? He was wearing dark shades so he had that mysterious thing happening. Twenty years later, they're still together. I'm going to tell my single friends to leave their cars at home and take SEPTA.

Steve: That raises a good point, Mia. How many people fall in love driving home in their cars? The only social interaction you get in a car is road rage.

Mia: My advice for people who want to meet a fellow SEPTA rider is to have your number ready. If you don't have a business card, write it on a piece of paper in advance in case the person gets off at the next stop. You don't want to have to get stalkerish, trying to find them the next day.

Steve: I gave my number to a girl once without saying a word. The next day she balled it up and threw it back, saying, "Loser!" She thought it was a lottery play and it didn't hit.

Mia: You were just unlucky. Kudos to Neville A. McLachlan, who saved a seat for a woman he met at a SEPTA stop. "We've spoken every day and every night since then and my fiancee Gail Carmack and I are in the final stages of planning our wedding." They should incorporate something SEPTA-like in their wedding ceremony. Instead of riding off in a limo, maybe they could rent a SEPTA bus. Steve, have you ever kissed anyone on a public train or bus? Burgandy Holiday and David Kanthor shared their first kiss during a bus ride on SEPTA.

Steve: No, that never happened to me. But I do have a friend who claims to have made love in the vestibule between cars on New Jersey Transit's Jersey Coast Line. Standing up. Both wearing long winter coats.

Mia: That gives new meaning to the old conductor's warning, "All aboard!" Who knew public transportation could be so sexy?

Steve: Gamble and Huff did. And now those happy couples from SEPTA can spend Valentine's Day talking about how you can find romance on the rails, tenderness on the trolley and a beloved on the bus.

Steve is a 50-something married man who's been around the block. Mia is a younger, recently married woman with an altogether different attitude. They may not agree, but they have plenty of answers. For answers e-mail S&M@phillynews.com or write: S&M c/o Daily News, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130.