Last night on the bus, a man and woman stood talking to the driver from the Wall Street stop to the East Village. It was clear that the driver and the man knew each other in the way that the man draped himself across the payment box casually and laughed and laughed at everything the bus driver said, but it seemed the woman in the leopard-print coat had been sitting in the seat behind the driver, gotten jealous of the fun they were having, and jumped up to join in. They weren’t bothering me at all, but then I’m a really forgiving, really self-sacrificing, really charitable person. Also a humble one.
But out of nowhere came a creaky old-lady voice:
“Excuse me! Don’t talk to the driver while the bus is in motion, and get behind the white line. It’s the law! All you’re doing is messing around. ALL OUR LIVES ARE AT STAKE.”
5 Comments
I so enjoy your public transit observations. I love visiting NYC and love people watching while on trains, subway and busses. FYI, I’m way too old to be a hipster who wants to live there or have any opinion other than admiration for the people who do live there. Were there any meaningful glances shared with other passengers in response to the enforcer’s comments?
I think the white line rule should be sacrosanct. Even Sandra Bullock enforced it in “Speed.”
OVER THE LINE!
*in my best Walter Sobchak*
That is so ridiculous. Did the driver laugh? I would have. In San Francisco the drivers are almost always on their cell phones screaming at their baby daddy or talking about how drunk they were the night before. MY LIFE WAS AT STAKE!
“All our lives are at stake”? Um, not unless you’re in the movie Speed. Or unless I’m driving. Which I was not. So Knit Beret needs to simmer down.