Riding New York Buses Is Like Going to the Theater.

I absolutely adore riding New York City Buses. I never know exactly what's going to happen. As I am an experienced people-watcher, I really do take in the scene.
Yesterday was quite a dramatic treat.

I got on a bus going uptown, and noticed that the driver had actually waited for me, I thought. I asked if he'd seen me running to catch him. "No" he answered. Ok! I sat down and waited. Five minutes went by. Finally he started driving. He soon stopped and waited again. This happened three more times. I looked at my watch. He then announced to his riders, at last, that he would not be moving again, until the bus in front of his moved on and suggested we all move to the other bus. There were six of us who got off and on again and started speaking to each other about this adventure. Others shared that four buses had previously arrived at the same time, which was very unusual, so our driver was obviously trying to slow down....

We were now becoming bus buddies, involved in this common experience.


The next part of the ride went really fast, and I transferred to a cross-town bus. When I got on the next bus and approached the fare box, I saw a slip of paper which said "Free." I thanked the driver, sat down in the front row and preceded to watch as the other riders got on and reacted to the slip of paper. One lady looked angry. One man asked if that paper meant that he could just sit down; he was carrying a brief case full of Financial Newspapers. There were lots of riders at that time, so there were lots of totally different reactions. Some looked relieved, some looked harried, some registered disbelief. Almost no one thanked her!

Finally, a little lady walked up the the front to ask the driver where she would stop next. The driver told her to please stop yelling, to which the little lady replied that she always sounded like that, as she had a loud voice. She got off with no further conversation.

Finally, it was my turn to get off, so I thanked the driver again and wished her a lovely evening. She just smiled at me and looked so relieved that someone actually had paid attention to her.