Transit-dream this morning

Fishbowl but not RTS.

For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs. My stroke ended that.
“I need a navigator.”
I used to do this on esoteric routes, bus-routes a bit hard too follow, that twisted and turned all over.
“I don’t wanna miss anyone,” I’d say.
I suppose this is more motivated than many bus-drivers, but I had been a bus-passenger myself eons ago.
I’d go out and reconnoiter the line the weekend before starting a new route, but sometimes I felt that wasn’t enough.
Especially out in the hinterlands, where there might not be bus-stops.
“Don’t miss this guy. Ya won’t even see ‘im.”
One year I had a school-run through “the Projects,” the deepest darkest slums in Rochester.
I had it all school year; started with a full bus-load (about 40-50), and ended up with maybe 20.
I really had only one rule: “ass, pass, gas or grass; nobody rides free.” (They had passes.)
If one of my kids was running to a stop, I’d stop and let them on.
Them kids were gettin’ to school if I could help it.
(And I only drove school-trips in the morning. The kids were too sleepy to be trouble. —Going home they were wired.)
40-50 down to 20; I used to wonder how many were still alive, or how many had gone to prison.
I also wondered how many I’d lost to “ass, pass, gas or grass.”
Kids would lose their bus-pass, then drop out.
The run in my dream was very esoteric, and I happened on it as a vacation-run, whatever.
I had one of our old “wide-100s,” 102 inches wide, our first buses over eight feet wide — eight feet is 96 inches.
“100” was the bus series, although we only had about nine or 10, numbered 151 on.
They were “Fishbowls” (GM “New Look”), like pictured above.
A wide-100 still seated 53, the added width was in the center aisle.
The added width made little difference; what made buses hard to drive was their length (and their wheelbase).
It was a city-run, but over unfamiliar streets. It wasn’t a regular bus-route.
Far be it I miss anyone because of my winging it.
I corralled a navigator to ride shotgun — follow the correct route.
I had ridden these things myself, and knew what it meant to be left standin’ if no bus showed, or worse yet just flew by.

• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered. It ended my career driving bus.
• Regional Transit does school-work, taking kids to school in regular city buses. The kids are picked up along regular bus-routes.
• RE: “Vacation-run.......” —The regular bus-driver would go on vacation, so his run became a “vacation-run,” open to extra drivers. (Extra drivers were a pool of bus-drivers not assigned to regular bus-runs. —You were an “extra-driver” by choice.)
• Vehicle-width used to be restricted to eight feet. Then it was upped to 102 inches.