Lighthearted topic.

I mentioned in a past thread that my husband is a bus driver. I also talked about how mildly annoying it can be that he will take any other bus driver's side in a conflict, no matter what. Co-worker, or stranger driving for another transit system, whatever goes wrong is always the passenger's fault, never the driver's. If it *seems* to be the driver's fault, hubby will refuse to offer an opinion, claiming he'd need to hear the other side of the story first. If I'm talking about a rude sales clerk or something, he can offer an opinion, but not if it's another bus driver.

Today as we were discussing various aspects of bus driverdom, I told of something that happened to me somewhere else, in another transit system, when I was in college. The topic had come up of passengers not having exact change, and the various ways they deal with it. To give you an idea how long ago this happened, the fare was 35 cents. On my way home, I had two quarters on me, and that's all. It isn't uncommon for passengers to get change from other passengers--the driver isn't allowed to make change. So anyway I got on the bus, inserted one quarter into the fare box, and told the driver that if I couldn't get change for the second quarter I would put it in too.

The driver let out a forceful exhale, pushed a button on the fare box to send the first quarter down, and then barked at me sharply, "Get change for it, lady, or you don't get a ride!" That attitude seemed totally unnecessary, given the fact that I was willing to overpay if I couldn't get change.

And hubby made no excuse for that driver. He couldn't defend it. Finally, at long last, another driver was clearly in the wrong. Hubby offered what for him is the strongest condemnation. "I wouldn't have handled it that way."

Miracles happen.