During the spring sheet of 2018, which ran from April to June, I did a local Richmond run. The whole route was as follows. I started off in service from the eastern terminus of the 401 route (Horseshoe Way and No 5 Rd) to Steveston, then a 407 to Marine and Knight and back again via the industrial route aka via Vulcan, then a 402 to Brighouse Stn then back again, another 407 to and from Marine Drive, but this time regular route, another round trip on a 402, and then a 401 to Brighouse where I finished my work at Bay 6a.
On my back from Marine and Knight as a 407 Gilbert via Vulcan I picked up a group of school kids. They were nice quiet young folks, and one of the first days I saw an anxious looking teen on the wrong side of the street, and wondered if he wanted my bus. The concerned looking kids at the bus stop gave me a further clue, so I waited for him to cross, and he boarded my bus, and popped in a twoonie, and took a ticket. I usually had about 5 kids from that particular stop.
Part one of this story is that one fellow who was late for the bus, lets call him Melvin, and one of the young ladies who were concerned about him that day, lets call her Martha.
Everyday Melvin put in a 2$ coin, and I mentioned one day that he could do better things with that 20 cents he was overspending, because the bus fare at that point in time was $1.80. He smiled nervously, took his transfer, and went his way. But each day I could see he would more sheepishly than not pay with his twoonie. I asked him if he knew about our compass program, and he quickly told that yes he had one, just hadn’t gotten around to loading it, etc. This went on for a couple of weeks, then one day he had his back turned to me as he rather excitedly was getting something out of his wallet, and then turned to board the bus proudly holding his compass pass, and tapped in. I asked if I could take his picture doing so, he agreed, and so I did.
Every once and while after that I’d talk to him about other things like the fact that a concession bus pass costs 53$ and he’d been spending 80$ minimum a month, and what was he now going to do with the 27$ he was saving? He told me he was saving up to get his driver’s license.
One day after picking them all up, Martha came walking up with a back pack that had been left behind by another passenger. I thanked her, and called my supervisor to come pick it up and take it to lost property. The next day a Chinese man, Leo, in his early 20’s told me in very broken English, that he didn’t speak English, and had lost his back pack… after trying in vain to explain how to phone to get it back, I took out a piece of paper and wrote it all out for the English speaking friend he’d mentioned to read to the lost property clerk and the phone number to dial. Next day again Leo boarded my bus once again, and paused, opening a shopping bag, and pulling out a couple of things to give me. I felt awkward about this, because it isn’t usual to have somebody show their appreciation in that way. 
he explained that his cousin was a dancer in Shen Yun, a dance and musical presentation. The brochure and a beautiful book mark. I thought it was a wonderful gesture, and thanked him.
As he’d done that day he’d lost his back pack he got off at a stop before the school kids got on, only this time he had all his stuff with him! When Martha and the others got on, I showed these two things to her, she gasped and said they were beautiful! She went and got a seat and I drove on. A few blocks down the road, after a little self talk, I pulled over, parked, put on my four ways at a bus stop, and walked to the back of the bus.
not knowing her name, I addressed her by looking at her,
“I want to tell you a little more about that young man whose back pack you found…” and told her what I’ve just told you, only added, “this is your award ceremony, in front of all your friends, for clearly, these things do not belong to me, but to you, the one who found his back pack and turned it in. I can’t introduce you to him, because you are a young girl and he is an adult, but I can give you these things, congratulations” and resumed driving my route.
I had another couple of ‘meaning of life’ type conversations with Melvin, including how to look up the Mission and Values of a company he was thinking of applying to for a summer job, to gain an edge on the others who would apply. I told him to think about what he could do for them to advance their cause, rather than just what they could do for him, like pay him his wages.
On the last day of the sheet, I like to say goodbye to my favourite passengers, and these two were certainly amoung those types. But to my surprise when Martha boarded, she gave me a card, which I opened later. She told me to take their picture, and to put it in the empty space at the bottom of the card. So, I pulled over and took a selfie with them. i won’t show the picture of them, cuz they are only 15 years old, but I’ll post the card she wrote. You’ll see she addresses me as Mr Bus Driver which hearkens back to a previous post.
I’ve copy/pasted the front of the card into the bottom corner there.
