Jun
8
I bring you the third installation of stories from the public transit:
As I jumped on the bus at Michigan Avenue and Huron, I noticed many of the front seats normally reserved for senior citizens and people with disabilities were taken by young men and women.
But the bus was mostly empty anyway. I took a seat behind the last row marked with a handicap sign.
In the next few stops along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, six or seven people boarded the bus. They must have been in their eighties or just about, but you couldn’t tell by their faces, which were giddy and full of smiles. They were really having a day on the town. Radiating summer and youth, they were all dressed to the nines.
At first I thought the young people occupying the front section of the bus were not going to relinquish the seats. I mean, there was no question as to who had more energy. But quickly the young people got up and moved to the back of the bus, which was a relief to me– though it be an urban jungle, Chicago has not forgotten etiquette.
As the old folks bantered back and forth, I drank in the stately appearance of one elderly woman in particular. Her make-up was flawless, her eyes clear and focused. She was dressed smartly, with a red jacket fanning out behind her neck, which had quite a regal effect on her appearance as a whole. Her wrists were laden down with bracelets of elaborate design and of no doubt great expense. I pictured how long it had taken her in the morning to carefully and systematically fasten the necklace she had around her neck, to put each of those heavy rings on, and to choose the exact earrings that would match her mood.
And as I watched them talking excitedly back and forth, I found myself thinking enviously, I hope when I’m their age I’ll still want to take that good care of myself. And I hope I’ll enjoy having the extra time to be able to take a whole morning just selecting what brooch will set off my outfit just right.
We really don’t change much from the time we’re in elementary school. Choosing our friends, feeling connected. Talking about things that seem to be the most important to us at the time.
One woman leaned across the aisle of the bus to ask one of her friends something I couldn’t quite catch. She was gesturing to her own purse.
The man replied, “I’ve got it in my pants.”
Another woman said, “He’s got what in his pants?”
The woman beside her said, “What do you think?”
They all burst out laughing. Even I started laughing.
“My wallet, my wallet!” the man said in self-defense.
Sometimes there’s nothing old about old people.