Riding the bus takes some skill and courage. It’s not only a means of transportation, but a means of learning about the city and its people. The real people who make this city great, they make it run! While the people who drive to work are the paper-pushers, they make the rules dictating when and where the bus will stop. Never once will they set foot upon the metal beast to see if it works or not. Never once will they take public opinion into consideration.
Let’s start at the ground and work our way up. We have at first the lowest of the low, the bottom feeders and anyone else looking for a handout. i can’t help but overhear the conversation behind my head
“Yup, just go talk to billy, he’ll give you a.. “Yup, talk to bill! hes a good guy” another interupts
a third chimes in “yup, i got me a hundred dollars to buy me some books, and a fifty dollar to get me some personal things like a tooth brush and to shave with”
The third man had been in his mid thirties, still sporting the latest in street-thug-wear, knuckles tattooed and a cheezy half grown goatee beard, perhaps he had been in a gang or a crew, maybe even a rapper? Either way his past had made it so he never had to work or worry about things like where his next meal would come from. The law had obviously intervened and put a stop to his life of luxury. He now has to dumb down his speech to be able to communicate with the lowlife on this bus, enough so the people he must associate with will not try to expel him from their little clique, for if they realized he was better than them, he would get the axe.
These men were scary, they would snatch your chain to get their next fix, or to feed themselves. They might knife you. All these horrid things that go on outside of the bus. Public transport provides protection, akin to the watering hole in the jungle where the wild animals go to drink and have the respect of not attacking one another.
These fellows were at least ‘trying’ to regain something of their lives through schooling programs that will make them welders or construction workers. But make no mistake, they will attack!
Next we have the welfare people. These folks have little reason to leave the house other than to buy their children food, or cigarettes. They have to complain about everything under the sun along their way, and try to bring their neighbors down with them. They bitch about how people “ain’t right” and that they don’t follow the rules society has set out, when they themselves turn a cheek only to bend or break the rules as the occasion rises. i have nothing against welfare recipients, i myself have had to walk that path, but the kind of people it turns you into after years of receiving, is a horrible thing.
The next in line are the students; the university crowd. They wander lost in their own thoughts about class as they pass through the city with blinders on never realizing the cruel world sitting directly next to them on the same bus.
In other larger cities, academia such as teachers and professors ride the bus in an attempt to cut back on fuel emissions. But no, not in this city. For those same profs would not set foot upon a bus in this city.
Next up we have people in their mid 40’s and 50’s, the working stiffs waiting out the storm for the big retirement checks to come in from the government. They read their poetry and books recommended by Oprah all the while gazing over top with their condemning judgmental looks at everyone below them, never once asking themselves how they had made it to riding the bus. i however, love riding the bus! i don’t know what category if any i fit into, or if i’m even correct about my observations. But that’s all they are… personal observations. i realize every persons life situation is totally unique and tailored to the individual. Life is, now, however, all about the individual and it shines through this city of ipod wearing freaks as they walk dronelely down the avenue on their way to work after thanking the bus driver. It’s weird that everyone says thank you after that dreadful journey, but we are after all, somehow connected in our individuality.
Peace \ /
Dr.Jay Cole
