At 9 a.m., the express bus that carries department store cosmetics counter clerks to their heavily-scented posts each morning stops running, doubling the amount of time it takes to get to school by forcing me to take the local. Gone are the twentysomething women, replaced by Lincoln Park moms with babies in strollers or firmly attached to their person by some Scandanavian baby-holding contraption. Farther down the route, the geriatric crowd slowly piles along as the bus plods through the Gold Coast.
By Goethe Street or thereabouts, all of the seats are taken and the childless uptowners have to start getting up to make room for the "Greatest Generation." This is all well and good, but it requires every fit sitter to make a judgment about every standing senior, namely whether they are indeed frail enough to need a seat. Sometimes, they will take offense at the notion that they have been judged as too infirm to stand on the bus, just like they have been standing since the 151 Sheridan Local was pulled by a team of horses.
Just as you really have to be 100% sure the woman you're being nice to is actually pregnant to avoid making a scene, standing up for an older person who may or may not want your seat is a careful calculus of physical fitness, potential wounding of pride (and the accompanying talking-to) and the opprobrium of your fellow bus-riders should you guess wrong.
Note to self: make sure to catch the earlier bus with the rest of the working-age schlubs.
Riding the bus in this city SUCKS. It's incredibly slow during most hours of the day and it's always too packed. If you live within 3 miles of where you're going you're better off walking.
My rule regarding pregnant women - unless they are very pregnant, they can stand. Because I don't want to give up my seat to some lady who's just an unhealthy apple shape (indicative of cardiovascular problems and possible diabetes) and even if she was pregnant would only be kinda pregnant. When it's obvious and you don't have to ask, someone beats me to the punch.
As for old people, it's always a tough call. There are those super fit old folks who could take you down in a bar fight, and then there are the 65 year old ladies that look like they're going to have a heart attack because they had to climb 3 stairs to get on the bus. I always look at the old person nearest me and wait for eye contact and then indicate that I'll give up my seat if they like. Sometimes they accept but very often I've had old people decline. Perhaps it's pride or perhaps they think I'm a sweet little girl. Who knows and who cares?
About 1/2 of the time I'm on the bus I have reading material that I'm intently involved in (20-page articles on Darfur) and I absent mindedly ignore everything going on around me. I find this method is best.
I recommend you pull out one of your law school tomes and a highlighter and pretend you're studying. That'll get you mucho sympathy votes.
Hahaha, I like the image of the team of horses pulling the bus.
BTW, if you're going to give a senior citizen your seat, make sure that you've communicated this to them prior to actually standing up, or some loose-moraled individual will swoop in and steal it.
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