BART attorney met the love of her life on San Francisco-bound train

The year was 2006. Nintendo was releasing its latest gaming console, the Wii. Pluto got a planetary downgrading. And every tween was belting “High School Musical” hits in the hallways.

Crystal Matson had just graduated from Spelman College with dreams of one day going to law school. Though she had never been to the Bay Area before, Crystal, adventurous spirit in tow, accepted a job in San Francisco and quickly found an apartment near Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

Crystal grew up in a small town outside of Houston, where public transportation was nonexistent. She’d taken Atlanta’s MARTA for a few airport trips, but it was hardly part of her daily routine.

Things changed when she moved to the Bay. Though she hadn’t used public transit much before, Crystal quickly became a bona fide expert on BART, which she’d take every weekday to her job in San Francisco.

On these daily trips to Embarcadero Station, Crystal began noticing a man on the Lake Merritt platform. The two often rode on the same train car, through the Transbay Tube and into the city.

“I probably saw him for a month, every day, waiting on the same platform,” said Crystal, who now works as an attorney at BART.

With only a few months in the Bay under her belt, Crystal was on the hunt for friends and community – “Definitely not a boyfriend,” she said. In fact, Crystal already had a significant other. 

So, one day, Crystal decided to gather her courage and introduce herself to the mysterious, well-dressed man on the train.

“I said, ‘Hey, I see you on the train all the time, and I’m trying to meet new people. Can you tell me where all the young professionals hang out?” Crystal recalled.

The two had a casual conversation, with Crystal chatting about her time at Spelman as well as her youth in Texas. It turned out the man, an accountant named George, had grown up in Houston himself. Believing she’d secured a new friendship, Crystal handed him her business card and went on her way.

But the very next day at Lake Merritt Station, George was not on the platform, so Crystal got on the train. He wasn’t in the car, either.

“This went on for months,” Crystal said. “He vanished!”

Fast forward months later, and Crystal once again spied George on the platform. This time, he came up to her.  

“He said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ And I go, ‘Why are you talking to me? Where were you?” Crystal said.

It turns out, George had a girlfriend who also went to Spelman College and overlapped with Crystal’s time there. He thought his then-girlfriend was setting him up.

“Instead of just saying he was in a relationship, he hid from me!” Crystal said, laughing.

The duo decided to meet for a friendly brunch at Le Bateau Ivre in Berkeley. At least Crystal thought it was friendly. George, she’d learn later, had other ideas. (Editor’s note: Both Crystal and George were single at the time.)

“Even if I had thought it was a date, when the bill came, he didn’t pay! We went Dutch,” Crystal said.

Alas, the two enjoyed each other’s company and began hanging out – as friends – regularly.

“Ultimately, over time, that friendship became a relationship,” Crystal said. “This was about six months after that brunch.”

Crystal recounted doing “everything” with George on BART. They joined the AIDS Walk, ran Bay to Breakers, picnicked in Dolores Park. Their favorite spot was a bar in the Mission District called Double Dutch.

“BART has always been a staple in our relationship,” Crystal said. “We’ve taken it everywhere to get around and explore.”

In 2009, three years after meeting on the BART train, George proposed at Le Bateau Ivre surrounded by friends. Crystal said yes, and the two married on a yacht in Newport Harbor in 2011.

BART has remained a seminal part of their lives. So much so that six years ago, Matson joined the transit agency as an attorney.

Even now, Crystal still remembers the way she felt taking BART around the region as a bright-eyed and bushytailed twentysomething.

“It was the way I got around everywhere,” she said. “It just felt like I was a grownup in the city, and that was exciting.”