I’m walking to the subway after work last night and I hear a commotion. Of course I stop to check out the action. I turn around and an older man (though not particularly crazy looking) is banging on the doors of an MTA bus that is stopped at a red light. He’s shouting “Open this door! Open this door! I was at the stop and you didn’t pick me up!!!!” At this point almost everyone on the block has stopped to watch this scene. Hey, after a long day at the office, who wouldn’t pause to watch a little excitement?
The driver looks at the guy for a hot second with no expression on his face and turns back to the front. Old man continues to shout and bang, and decides that since he isn’t getting a reaction, he’s gonna go to the driver’s side door. He walks around the bus in the middle of the street and continues to yell and bang, getting angrier with every second. The driver makes everything funnier (to us bystanders that is) by completely ignoring the guy. I chuckle and continue toward the subway. I look back a couple seconds later to see the outcome of old man’s hysteria and see that he is now standing in front of the bus…refusing to move. He is literally standing in front of a gigantic bus at a red light in a stance that says “You’re gonna have to hit me to get through this light.” I’ll give him credit…he stood there for a good part of the next green light, but finally backed down when the honking got too intense. I liked his resolve…but I liked the bus driver’s total unemotional and apathetic response to the situation. I guess he’s probably encountered a few crazies like that before. Sadly enough, viewing this ridiculousness really made my night.
Posted by cher on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 3:02 am.