The Bus Part I

I’m waiting for the bus on the corner of Durant and Selleck Street.  I find this interesting because I normally get on the bus on the corner of Selleck and Fairfield Avenue. While I wait for the bus I see some of my friends across the street.  I thought to myself I’m going to cross the street and talk to my friends while I wait for the bus.  I looked down the road to my right and I don’t see the bus.  I continue to converse with my friends while I wait.  Oh look the bus is coming; I’m thinking I will cross the street in a second; it appears I have some additional time before the bus arrives at my stop.   I look one more time down the street just to gauge how much time I have before I dart across the street.  I continue to talk to my friends and much to my surprise when I look up; the bus is going passed me so fast that if I had been on the “right” side of the street I still would have missed the bus.  I think to myself well I missed this bus; I will simply wait for the next bus. While I’m waiting, on the wrong side of the street I decide to run across the street and get a snack from the corner deli. 

The deli known as “Rob’s Deli” was a place the community could come in and get a snack, hang out, read the paper for free – in hopes that Rob would not “catch on”.  I have fond memories of the deli, kids could make a dollar if they could ride their bicycles around the corner, which is to actually ride down Selleck Street and make a left turn onto Durant Street with no hands or ride a wheelie around the corner.  You could grab one of those tasty “Flamingo” sausages and Budweiser Pony for about two buck.  Cigarettes were fifty-five cents and chips were a dime.  You could actually get a bag of candy for a few pennies.  The local dry cleaner was just one door down that by appearance you might want to think twice about taking your clothes there to be cleaned.  It was a place with the local fellas could sit and drink beer and talk all the things they did that may or may not have done and they could talk about the things they were going to do but would or would never do.

Meanwhile I’m waiting for that second bus and once again I decide to go and chat with my friends.  But this time I will make sure the moment I see the bus I will cross the street.  I’m looking down the road periodically and I don’t see the bus.  I continue to talk with my friends.  I look again and there’s the bus.  I’m in awe the bus is traveling so slowly I’m thinking I could run back and forth across the streets several time and not miss the bus.  That bus was crawling like it was looking for someone.  I continued to talk with my friends because I’m thinking if that bus passes me at that rate I could certainly catch it.  Meanwhile I’m still talking to my friends and I look up and the bus is gone!  I never saw it “Pass Me”, and interestingly none of my friends appeared to be concerned about the bus, they never mentioned the bus, they didn’t ask me if I was waiting for the bus.  The just talked to me as along as was talking to them and you know something I cannot remember not one word about the conversation that day with my friends.  I just know that we talked or I just had to talk to them, something about going across the street was so interesting at that moment but in retrospect all that talking caused me to ultimately – miss the bus.