THE PEOPLE ON THE BUS sequel to the Wheels on the Bus

People,
Like colors
Of the rainbow,
Add variety to our days
As they arc across our lives.


I can only assume that there are unwritten bus riding rules that state:
1) A single passenger entering the bus must occupy ­one seat of any remaining double seat until aforementioned double seats are all occupied by a passenger. Only then is a rider allowed to take a seat next to an occupied seat. This will assure that couples or close friends will not be allowed to sit together unless one of them leaves work early and walks 3 blocks to get on at an earlier stop or stands in line for 15 minutes in order to claim a double seat.
2) A single rider may sit on the aisle seat and plunk his/her bag on the seat next to them in order to keep both seats. This action may be nullified only if the bus is totally full or if some brave soul dares to ask to sit there.

But then there is George who takes a double seat and then gives it to us so dh and I can sit together. I’d like to meet George’s wife. She is brave enough to pull in front of the bus and stop so that he can get on, causing one bus driver to say, “That’s the first time I’ve been pulled over by a Camry!”

One morning we had just left the transit station when one of the passengers went to the front of the bus and asked the driver to stop. He stopped and the passenger walked quickly toward the gas station as we drove on. It wasn’t until the next morning that we found out the problem….diarrhea attack!

There are a number of approved activities for the hour long bus ride:
Sleep (with or without snoring)
Read scriptures or other books or at least start to read before you fall asleep.
Knit or crochet.
Apply make-up.
Tie the necktie which you threw around your neck as you ran out the door.
Solve Sudoko puzzles.
Play games on palm pilots.
Work or play on computers.
Conduct business on the phone.
Visit with your neighbor even if he his trying to finish an assignment on his computer.
Stare out the window.
Put on ear phones and listen to music. (Best if just loud enough for others to hear a teasing bit of percussion).
Listen to books on tape or conference talks on ipods.
Watch movies on your new minature DVD player. This only happened in January. The novelty must have worn off.
Observe other passengers.

The first and last on the list are my two favorites.

We like to give our fellow riders nicknames:
Roadrunner sits as close to the front as possible, often jockeying for departure position. He gets off at the most popular stop and takes off with a long stride that has him up to the corner and sometimes across the street before the last of the departing passengers are off the bus. We’ve seen him in the cafeteria and he eats like he rides the bus. He can down a hamburger in 4 bites.

Bag Lady gets on a few stops after us. She has long red hair, loud clothes, drags a huge bag on rollers up the steps with two more bags plus her purse. She wears ear muffs and overpowering, sickly sweet, heavy, sting your nose, “I took a bath in it” perfume. Can you tell the perfume really gets to me?

The Tall Man must get off work one minute before the bus arrives. He runs across the street (jaywalking of course) and barely makes the bus. On crowded days he often has to stand in the aisle on the way home with his head almost scraping the ceiling.

The Lawyer reads her scriptures, takes a blanket out of her bag, puts a mask over her eyes, curls up and goes to sleep. Since she’s a lawyer no one dares question the fact that she takes up two seats. See rule number 2 above. I like her because one day she loaned me an extra pair of reading glasses when I left mine in the car.

Victor (That’s his real name.) strikes up a conversation with whomever he is next to and maintains it the whole trip. He knows everyone by name even the bus drivers. He seems to have an aversion to wearing suits on the bus as he wears casual clothes and then changes at work.

Good Morning, America doesn’t ride the bus anymore. I miss him. He always got on and greeted us all with a smile and a loud, “GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE.”

I just have to add my pet peeve:
Cell Phone Users who talk at TOP VOLUME on their cell phones all the way home. They must have a better calling plan than I do. One young man stood three seats behind me and called one person after another and spoke L-O-U-D-L-Y to them the entire trip. I was about ready to ask him to put his phone on speaker phone. We might as well have listened to the whole conversation as we were being forced to hear his three-fourths of it.

I will miss our fellow passengers when we’re no longer taking the bus. We will have to occasionally make the trip just to say, “Good morning, everyone”.