I was reading a blog entry on J's Uncle Bobby's blog-(wish I knew how to highlight that for a link but haven't learned how to do that yet-look on my links area, he's listed there). He was talking about what some passengers do and how often he hears the same things.
It reminded me of the story of my Aunt Janis when she was taking public transportation in WVA.
Every morning my aunt would pay her money for the 25 minute bus ride "uptown".
About half way through the trip, the bus would pulled over and the driver would walk through the bus collecting tickets. Every morning when he came to my aunt, he would have to wait while she frantically looked for her ticket.
Now if this happened once in a while that would be different, but my aunt lost her ticket almost EVERYDAY! Finally, the bus driver got so tired of having to wait on her to "find" her ticket he came up with his solution to the problem. As my aunt paid for her ticket one morning, instead to handing it back to her, the bus driver said, "I'll just hold on to this for you." She never had another ticket when she rode the bus from that point on.
There are a few stories about my aunt during that time in her life. She was under some stress and always seemed to be rushing around or running late.
My dad used to occassionally drive her to the bus stop in the mornings. It sometimes became a Laurel and Hardy type affair for her to catch the bus. My dad would drive up behind the bus (that was already loading passengers at that stop) and tell my aunt to "Run!'
Some mornings they would do this at several stops because my aunt would never be fast enough to get all her stuff together and get out to the bus in time.
When they were coming up to one of the last bus stops before she missed the bus totally, Dad used to say, "Now this is your last chance...RUN!" They used to laugh about this years later.
No wonder the bus driver decided to keep her ticket...he saw this charade more than once, I'm sure.
One time my aunt got up at 4:00 AM by mistake and thought she was late for work. It was so quiet in the house, she decided that everyone had already gone to work and left her. She called a taxi to take her to the bus stop. While she was on the bus she realized it wasn't as busy as it normally should be. She finally realized that she was a little early for work when the coffee shop she usually frequented was not even opened yet. My mom and Dad got up that same morning and were worried when they couldn't find her in the house. It took a little time to figure out she had already left for work.
Another good Aunt story was when she asked the repairman to come out to fix her frozen water pipes. It was about 8 degrees outside and the repairman was in the garage working on the pipes (or it might have been the washer...facts may be a little different due to the author having more decades passing...please allow some poetic license here.)
Anyway, my aunt was rushing around to take my cousin to school and totally forgot that the poor man was working in the garage and LOCKED HIM IN. She LEFT to take my cousin to school and didn't return home for about 2 hours. When she got home, she heard this poor guy calling, "Lady....LADY....could you let me outta here???!!!" She was pretty darned embarrassed to have locked him in.
Well, I always enjoy my Aunt Janis stories because they always make me chuckle. I'm not making fun of her few lapses in remembering things because I have those same genes and already have a few "Tina stories" too. It must run in the family because there are a few "Mamaw stories" out there too!
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2 comments:
Can't wait for the Mamaw stories.
Can't imagine what they'll be!
Do you remember the Aunt Janis story when she and Susan were headed to Charleston, when they lived at the top of the steep hill on Walnut street,in a downpour of rain. Some high school girl about Susan's age was walking down the hill. Susan screamed,"stop" which Jan did only to find the girl reluctant to get in the car. She finally did get in and worried all the way down about her mom telling her about the "Don't talk to strangers", much less get in a car with them. At that point My sister said to Susan, "Do you not know her?" to which the reply was "No, but she was getting wet". Jan decided she would not take her all the way to Charleston (which she could have done), but decided to drop her off at the bus stop which was where she was headed to begin with. Being off to such a dubious start for the morning, Jan did not notice that her neighbor was driving behind her until he hit the back of her car when she decided about half-way thru the traffic light that she should stop. His comment, "I knew it was going to happen, just didn't know when or where"! There is another saga connected to that because afterwards, any time he would see her in the grocery store ,he'd stop, turn around , and go down another aisle. All in good fun because they both laughed about it.
It is pretty scaty to think those genes are mine too!!!Goodness...I remember these stories but the visual of the bus and Dad yelling "RUN" will live with me for a ong time! Do you remember the story about her in Puerto Rico and the mop?
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