Folklife and Bus Friends

May 27

Written By Amber

Yesterday a friend and I went to the Folklife Festival. We met at the entrance and wandered around, people-watched and listened to music. On the walk from the bus stop to the festival, I befriended the person who was sitting next to me on the bus. We started talking because the bus route changed and we were both surprised by this. My bus friend is an engineer who grew up in Egypt. I could tell just from our short conversation that he was a kind fellow. Also, he was one of the few non-drunk, stoned or slightly crazy bus friends I've made. Often when the person sitting next to me starts chit-chatting with me, it is interesting and novel, but slightly uncomfortable. On one ride home, I sat toward the back of the bus. I was merrily listening to music through my head phones when a man plopped down beside me. He pulled out a beer poorly concealed in a brown paper bag, and began joyfully jabbering away to me so I felt obligated to take out my head phones. He was a friendly enough fellow, but sometimes a person just wants to stare out the window and listen to music. He told me he sits in that spot because it is the seat right behind the mirror so the bus driver cannot see him drinking. He then told me his whole life story about growing up in South Carolina and working in a factory. Listening to his life story was actually pretty interesting and made me feel less grumpy about having my music-listening and day-dreaming interrupted. Near us, two men started making up misogynistic songs full of unpleasant and demeaning expletives about women. My bus friend asked me what I thought of their songs. I said something diplomatic but still negative like 'they were good at what they did but I didn't like it.' My bus friend promptly turned to the two singing men and said 'she said you guys are good at what you do but she doesn't like it.' This was a bit awkward, but the two men did not seem to be offended by my opinion. Right before I got off the bus, the bus friend said "I always meet the strangest characters on the bus. I could write a book about it!"