Thursday, March 26, 2009

The magic B63

The bus was packed to the gullies when the door opened at 4:20 this afternoon at Union St., but I climbed abroad anyway with my groceries. The driver turned out to be ol’ Grumpy McGrumpy himself, mumbling how this wasn’t a %$#@*& school bus, because the bus was packed with little kids. First graders, maybe, two or three of them rubiked onto the single bucket seats, and there were at least 30 of them, with plenty of adult minders. It was like some crazy effort to pack a phone booth. One woman seemed to be their chief wrangler, for she had a metal whistle around her neck and was leading them in singing. Yes, they were singing, and they sang all the way up 5th Avenue and down Atlantic, finishing with a little ditty that must be called the Telephone Song and includes every single child’s name. I was bemused. And then I looked up and saw the MTA ideas in motion poster: it was Miranda’s blessing from The Tempest:

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!

1 comment:

amarilla said...

Loved reading this, especially where you wrote "rubiked onto the single bucket seats." I comenze you - that's the word verification term presently.