Monday, June 30, 2008

The Wheels on the Bus


I learned how to ride the city bus when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I knew how to look up the schedules, what side of the road I needed to be on and how to use a transfer. There was a bus stop just a couple blocks away from our house in Riverton so it was pretty convenient to use. Once I got the hang of it, riding the bus was pretty easy. Back then it cost $.65 per ride, but I always took extra money with me to cover an extra ride or two in case I got on the wrong bus or my transfer expired.

My mom worked up in the Holladay area of Salt Lake and we thought it'd be fun to ride the bus up and have lunch with her one day. Corinne and I were going to go, along with her friend, Allison, because her mom worked with our mom at the same place. So it was me, Corinne and Allison together on the bus. We had to take two buses in order to get up to Holladay: the 43 Bluffdale bus from Riverton and then another bus that we switched to in Taylorsville that dropped us off across the street from the building where our moms worked. We made it up to Holladay that day on time and had a nice lunch.

When it was time to go, we said "goodbye" to our moms and walked across the street to the bus stop. A few moments later a bus pulled up and Corinne and Allison started to get on. "I don't think this is the right bus," I said, "it has the wrong name on the front." "Just get on it's the right one," they said. I argued for a moment and then realizing they were going to leave me there, I reluctantly got on.

Immediately the bus made a right hand turn and started heading north, the opposite direction of where we needed to go. "You guys we're going the wrong way..." I argued. "Stop your whining, it's probably going to turn again soon," they snapped, and continued with their giggling and chatter. I watched the city fly by as we got further and further away from home. It was a good 15 to 20 minutes before Corinne and Allison admitted I was right. We pulled the cord and got off the bus at a gas station in Sugarhouse. Neither of them had brought any extra money so we didn't have enough to go back the way we came and make it home. We were forced to use my money on the pay phone to call our moms to come get us.

Let this be a lesson to any of you who may ever question me. I am always right. Just remember that....

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Karen--I'm pretty sure it's me who's always right! But I'll take your sense of direction over my own, any day. :D