Mark your calendar, Humanity on Wheels: an Evening of Mass Transit Tales!, the first TriMet Diaries story telling event takes place Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at the Jack London Bar (in the basement of the Rialto Poolroom at 529 SW 4th Ave.).
My wife, daughter and I were waiting at the 77 bus stop westbound, stop #7510 to be exact, near the Trader Joe’s a block from the Hollywood Transit Center. My daughter was wearing a sorceress costume and cape and reading “The Celery Stalks At Midnight.”
Waltzing along and talking cheerfully to himself came a grizzled old guy. His wild beard, and a backpack under his poncho that shaped him into a hunchback did not disguise a friendly, inquiring face. He stopped and greeted us. The cap on his head read “Couples Retreat.”
“What does your cap mean?” I asked.
“I have no idea.”
He took a long look at the sorceress and eventually asked “Where did she come from?” His tone suggested he thought she might have some powers. He added, “A small egg?”
I’m currently rolling along, sitting in my favorite sideways seat on the Blue Line. As I write this very sentence, we’re pulling out of the Hillsboro Airport stop. I have long thought that writing a TriMet Diaries post while actually ON TriMet seemed only fair. Let’s do it.
To facilitate the creative process, I’m choosing the time-tested Q and A format. Lucky you.
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Q: Is it true that the question and answer format is nothing but a lazy device used by amateur writers without the skills to do anything that takes half a brain?
A: Yes.
Q: Tell me what you see out the window right now.
A: I’m looking to the south. We just cruised through a little patch of farmland. Appropriately enough, we just pulled into Hawthorn Farm station. Looking out the window out here is more fun than it is when you get closer to downtown… some trees and gently rolling farmland, some houses, some more trees. The trick is to look out the window without someone thinking you’re staring at them. Alternately, the trick to staring at someone is to look as though you are gazing out the window. TriMet is full of little balances like that. I’m pretty sure that’s what their logo stands for.
For TriMet aficionados such as myself, and likely many of you, these are interesting times. There’s a massive budget shortfall in the wind, and if you’re paying attention, you’re hearing all kinds of things – lines being cut, transfers done away with, charging for baggage (I made that up… I think) and any number of other insults to our status as commuters.
One of the things that keeps catching my eye is the talk about there being a distinction between “choice” riders, and their bedraggled, Tiny-Tim-cap-wearing, tin-cup holding brethren, the “transit dependent” rider.
 TriMet Diaries is the place to share your amusing, amazing, and horrifying tales of public transit in the Portland metropolitan area.
Ride along or climb aboard and contribute your own stories! |
