Musings from the city

As a pedestrian and bus rider in a small city, I have been people watching everywhere I go. I have many observations, and my first university degree is in sociology, a known society of people watchers. In my role as a social work investigator, I spent years of watching and assessing people and their behaviour. I much prefer the non-involved observer from a distance role. No judgement required, as well as no involvement. So, people watching it is. These are some recent observations as I have been out and about in the city in totally random order. 

•         I was on the bus headed downtown and sitting near the rear of the bus. We came to a stop and it was clear there was some shuffling required in order to make room for a woman with a stroller. On this mostly full bus, the first two people to jump up and make room were the two eldest gentlemen on the bus. The one fellow helped his friend with a can over to another seat and then flipped the seats up so the woman with the stroller could wheel right on into a cleared space. They did not hesitate to move and seemed quite comfortable in doing so. Meanwhile, the younger generations were plugged into their devices, heads down, looking at screens, earplugs in, tuning out the world around them. It saddens me just how common this scene is. Thank-you to these two gentlemen who spoke in their own language to each other to ensure they did the right thing.

•           A few days later, my turn came to help. Again, busy bus headed somewhere when an elderly Asian woman was making her way onto the bus with a very full cart of refundable cans and bottles. The recycling depot is on the bus line, so she is not the only one who does it. The issue was, she is a very small woman and her cart is nearly as tall as her as it is overpacked with bags of empties. She tried and tried to lift her cart onto the bus and couldn’t, so I leapt up once I recognized what the issue was and helped her pull the cart onto the bus. She then proceeded to get out her bus pass to show the driver and I returned to my seat. She bustled into a seat shortly afterwards and gave me several thank-you gestures as we rode downtown. When I looked around. The same thing – no one had even noticed there was an issue as they were fixed on their screens. Who is running things now? The computers on your smartphone? Has common sense and common decency been forsaken altogether in favour of screen time, often with mindless games, falling down the YouTube rabbit hole, or creeping someone’s Facebook or Instagram page. I worry.

•           I go for a walk most every day, sometimes two or three trips a day somewhere. I often have to cross a very busy street. Thankfully I have several crosswalks to choose from that are red light, marked, and one would hope, the safest way to cross the busy streets. One would be wrong. I am nearly hit at least twice a week, if not more. I am not alone most of the time and the vehicles that are rushing through a red light nearly hit several people each time. Once there were three vehicles that ran the red light, two in one direction and one in the other, and about 7 of us trying to get across the street. It was just ridiculous. Three drivers who cannot understand what a red light means to them. The worst intersections are Doncaster at Hillside and Shakespeare at Hillside. I have often yelled and given people either a hands up in the air what the fuck or a middle finger symphony. I am so tired of it. Come on people. Calm the fuck down.

•           The city traffic really triggers me sometimes, and so I take the next street over to walk most of the distance to the mall. Hillside Ave is filled with dump trucks, delivery trucks buses and buses, motorbikes that roar, and so on. Noise. Some days I can manage. Some days I need to get away from it. It amazes me just how much less noise there is one block away. It helps.

•           I was sitting on the back seat of the bus in the very middle which was mostly full. The two benches on my left and right were not quite full. The one on the left had one guy and two empty seats, one with his bag on it. He had a creepy moustache that made him look like a seventies porn star and/or pervert. The bench across from him on my right had two big guys sitting with an empty seat between them. Porn star/pervert moustache grabbed his bag and begrudgingly slammed it onto the floor in front of him as a nice-looking young woman then comes towards the rear looking for a seat. She eyeballed the porn star moustache and dismissed immediately and chose to sit between the two big guys on my right. His body language was immediately changed to how dare she not sit beside me after I moved my bag for her! And why did she squeeze between the two other guys and not in the seat where there was room to have an empty seat between her and the next guy. Creep factors were hot. That’s what. This guy, creep or not for real, he had the creep factor.

•           The energy on the bus during the day is very different than the energy on the bus at night, after dark. During the day, people are often headed to work or to shop or run errands or head to class. It’s usually quiet on the bus unless there are kids chattering or occasionally, older folks. At night, it is vibrant, and people are chattering and engaging with each other and less times is spent looking at screens. The buses that are headed downtown are usually quite noisy, but good noisy – fun, exuberance, excitement about the plans for the night, the people they will see, the adventures to be had. 
•       I spent four nights on the curb while my friends mother in law visited - she out ranks me, ha ha. All of a sudden I am very visible to anyone walking by as I exit the RV right into the sidewalk, sometimes in my pyjamas. I did meet several people though who all loved my RV and the quotes on it. Always a good thing. 

You just never know who you’ll meet when you’re walking down the street…