Listen to this short piece of music before reading any further and the rest of this post will make more sense. It’s only 30 seconds long.

That’s the strip music from the Overture to the Broadway show Gypsy, which I’m sure you know is the origin story of the famous strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee.

About 20 years ago or so, when I was living in the Wissahickon section of Philadelphia, I used to take the regional rail train into Center City, and I’d often be listening to music via my iPod though the earbuds.

Remember iPods? 

They were sort of the forerunner to the iPhone.

In fact they were very much like the iPhone, but their main function was to play audio files: music and podcasts and such.

As I said, it was about 20 years ago that one day I was riding into town on the regional rail, minding my own business, listening to music on my iPod, and it happened to be the Overture to Gypsy that was playing as the train pulled into my stop.

And just as I got up to walk to the exit, it was the strip music that started up.

Now I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I don’t think “walking” is quite the way one would describe what it was that I was doing as I made my way to the exit. Whatever it was, I quickly realized I was garnering much unwanted attention.

I came to my senses and made as quick an exit as I reasonably could. 

After that I was much more cognizant of my surroundings when listening to music on my iPod.