I like hearing interesting stories about life in Seminole Heights. The trouble is getting those stories out of the participants. Flyer Anon teases with references to some interesting things but nothing is ever written about it. Now Nabob is sharing a few stories from 1994. Let's see if the story continues.
One thing I can relate to from his story is having to ride the bus to work. A couple of years ago for several weeks I had to do that. Fascinating experience. You meet and see all sorts of interesting people.
There are all sort of tricks to being a successful bus rider. For example I had to switch from the #2 Nebraska Route to a now discontinued route to Davis Island. The best place to do so was under a Crosstown overpass acrosss from the Health Department on Kennedy. I was shielded from bad weather there.
I had to keep in mind several bus schedules to ensure the speediest ride to work, so my transfer waits were kept as short as possible.
I used to wear an overshirt and carry an umbrella in my bag to deal with weather and different temperatures (A/C on bus - none outside.) I always had a book to read.
There are regulars who I would see all the time and missed them after going back to car driving. Birthdays were celebrated. Stories were shared. Two I still see because one rider works at McDonalds at TGH. The other lives a few streets from me and I occassionally see her walking to her job as I drive by after she is dropped off the bus.
One interesting experience I had was seeing some guy stash a large knife in a newspaper rack. I kept an eye on him and he saw me eyeying him and left the nife there. He then confronted me on the bus. I had told my fellow passengers and we got the bus driver involved and she kicked him off. We called then the cops. I always wondered what the deal with the knife was. Had he just committed crime and was trying to get rid of evidence? Never found out.
One thing I found out is there are not enough covered bus stops. Especially downtown on Kennedy Blvd where many transfers occurred.
Do you have any bus stories? Any tricks to share?
I once rode the bus for a story that the school newspaper was doing. I had to ride from USF to University Mall. It took almost 45 minutes. Along the way we picked up a guy carrying a tv. Not like a small portable one, but a fairly large one with the cord dragging behind him.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I doubt your story, but you could walk from USF to University Mall in about 10 or 15 minutes. Are you counting the time you waited for the bus? And people carrying TVs have to ride the bus too!
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