They say sitting all day is hard on your back. Or is it standing. I don’t remember. I know they say sitting all day will make you fat, which is true, but I don’t Mind. The seats seem more inviting. I walk up the little stairs onto the bus and see a seat and it looks like cake and ice cream to me so I just sit and sit and sit.
All the bus drivers know me of course; I don’t want to get on no one’s bad side. Soon as I walk on a bus with a driver I don’t know I step forward and introduce myself right there.
“Hi sir. My Name is Gregory and I’m gonna sit on this bus today if you don’t mind. I got no where to be and no one to see, so I‘m just gonna sit on this bus today if you don’t mind.”
I usually get a rise out of them because I always say the same thing and there’s a little rhyme in there and its pretty clever if you think about it so they usually laugh and say “Sure” and I say ”God bless you sir,” and I get on the bus and I sit.
I don’t know if I like sitting in busses I know really well the best, or if I like sitting in ones I don’t know at all the best. I step onto the 112 bus and I know everyone. Grocery man with the big face and sad eyes, the pretty girls who are older then their clothes, old hat man with a smile on his face like he’s hiding something and I bet he is. I just sit and I watch and I listen and everyone chats about this and that or they do nothing and sit there. That’s when I know them the most. When they think no one’s watching. That’s when I see their grins straighten, or eyes brighten, or lips mouth words no one but me can hear. That’s when they are the most beautiful. Right when they think no one can see them.
The 62 bus I don’t know at all. I save that one for special days because it’s always new. Some days there is a girl with little pony tails that can’t make up her mind on a green candy or a purple candy and I know she should pick the purple but I just smile when she picks the green. Sometimes I see parents with kids. Sometimes the kids misbehave and the parents have to be sharp with them, which is not as fun to watch but I know they have to do it.
It’s more fun to watch parents and little kids when the kid is too curious to misbehave. I once watched a little girl with curls that didn’t ever stop and she would ask her dad why the streets were the color of coal and he would answer because lots of things is the same color and asphalt is the color of coal and she was learning, and I was learning too but I was also watching and the little girl got bright in her eyes every time she got an answer and I bet I did too.
My best memory on the bus was one time I was sitting in the back, as always, watching and watching and this man came on the bus and walked toward a seat and as he walked a hand reached out and grabbed him on the arm and he turned all startled like he was gonna fight and hurt someone, but as he turned he sees this little baby and it is holding him by the arm and he is looking at it and he loves this child for no good reason and I can see it. And the mother says “I’m so sorry” but the man doesn’t even care. He is just looking at this child and loving him and then the kid lets go and the man sits down and its over. I sometimes think about if I had walked by after if I would have gotten the same thing, if I would have loved the child, but I know that’s not why I’m here. I’m just here to watch. I just watch and sit and sit and sit.
Thanks for the lovely picture grandma, as always I enjoy the correspondence. Check back a bit later for a real entry about what I'm doing here.
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