Riding CT Transit daily always provides unique and extraordinary experiences, some positive, some negative. Each bus or bus ride has a personality unto itself; no two rides are ever the same.
There are rides where there is kindness and people helping one another and exchanging pleasantries. There are people going to and from work often wearing scrubs, and T shirts that says they work at Walmart (blue shirts and khaki pants) or Target (red shirts and khaki pants) and DD (Dunkin Donuts). Some Yale dining hall shirts. There are some college students, a lot of high school students. Sometimes I get on the bus with a neighbor where I live and we have a nice chat that would never have happened otherwise.
Sometimes you board a bus to see it packed like sardines. Sometimes it is noisy with chatter. Other times you encounter an eerie silence because every single passenger is wearing earphones. If you ask your seat mate, “Can you pull the cord?” (so you don’t miss your stop), you get no response. On a recent bus ride, as I boarded, I saw a toddler wearing earphones.
A couple of weeks ago I found myself in the midst of a horrific bus ride. An extremely irritable passenger had a bone to pick with the world. We’ll refer to her as Passenger 1. She picked a fight with another passenger (Passenger 2) because Passenger 2 accidentally (slightly and barely, if at all) brushed by Passenger 1’s baby’s carrier as she walked past the two of them while making her way to a seat. (Mind you, as always the bus was jam packed full of riders, carry-on gear, etc, including folded granny carts and baby strollers.)
Passenger 1 shouted at Passenger 2 from ten seats away: “You bumped my baby!” You bumped my baby.”Passenger 2 apologized immediately and sincerely.
Passenger 1 was not appeased because Passenger 2 did not apologize the way Passenger 1 felt appropriate. Passenger 1 yelled that she shouldn’t have even had to ask for Passenger 2’s apology, but she did.
A back and forth ensued for 20 minutes. Passenger 1 grew louder. The rest of us listened and watched in suspense thinking a bus wide brawl was going to break out. I almost got off the bus for my own safety.
“You bumped my baby and you didn’t apologize,” Passenger 1 concluded. Passenger 2 reminded her that she actually did apologize …
The bus driver had interjected trying to end the problem, to no avail. It’s not the bus driver’s job to babysit. Eventually we arrived at the corner of Chapel and Orange Streets and then the Green. Everyone got off the bus and went their separate ways.
But no bus ride compares to the moment I experienced the other evening a little after 8 p.m.
I was riding the 212 bus home up Grand Avenue from downtown, heading home after a long day. As we rode the night sky set in for the evening. A man with long dreads seated near me held his beautiful baby close to him and melodically sang the ABCs song to her as she fussed. He was trying to get her to fall asleep.
His voice was so beautiful and soothing that it was putting me to sleep, which I told him. It was putting him to sleep as well: I could see his eyelids growing heavier with each round he sang.
I told him he had a beautiful voice. He thanked me and said that besides getting help falling asleep, his baby was learning.
Eventually the baby was fast asleep.
I wish every bus ride could be that sweet. As I got up to get off at my stop I very quietly thanked him for making my evening and bus ride so special.
Shari Hoffman lives at Bella Vista and regularly rides CT Transit buses.
God bless those drivers! They are the single representative of the company providing service (CT TRANSIT) and they put up with a ton of crap. I've witnessed it.
For the record, strollers should be folded up. It states this clearly on the 'rules' board. But, then again, no one to enforce those 'rules' anyway.