PAGE A6
Winston-Salem Chronicle
SEPTEMBER 1
People
Sights, sounds,
folks of mass transit
By ROBIN BARKSDALE
Chronicle Staff Writer
The world of mass transit travel is a world within a world for people
who regularly move to and from work (and play) along the mass transit
lines. And for just 50 cents, the price of general fare on local buses, you
can experience the wonderful world of mass transit.
The Winston-Salem Transit Authority has done several in-house stud
ies which indicate who ride the buses and why.
But the sheer numbers give no real insight into the daily routines of
busriding. The numbers, although helpful, ignore the stresses of the bus
drivers, the pet peeves of riders and drivers, the conversations and colorful
personalities prevalent along the city's bus routes.
Along the way to your destination, you're likely to catch snatches of
conversations rivaling gossip columnists and psychologists' offices alike.
Recently, on one southside-bound bus, two passengers casually and openly
discussed the details of a mutual acquaintance’s marital problems.
"I kept telling her that he wasn't about nothing," said the firsL "I told
her and told her but she didn't want to listen."
"I know what you mean," said the second. "Now, she knows. He’s been
out doing all these things and she didn't want to listen to anybody but
everybody knew he was messing around on her."
Seemingly satisfied that they had accurately assessed their friend's situ
ation from the very start, the two would-be marriage counselors turned their
conversation back to the scorching summer temperatures.
Some bus passengers se^ to relish their bus rides, if only for the
opportunity for celebrity it can bring. Although not always well-known
themselves, there are passengers who always seem to be acquainted with
someone who, for better or worse, has made a name for themselves. A
southeast-bound passenger, who had remained relatively quiet on her jour
ney, announced to the bus driver and anyone else that would listen, that she
was the next-door neighbor of a woman accused of shooting her boyfriend.
That revelation immediately made her the most popular person on the bus
as the other passengers ceased their conversations and tuned into her
description of the culprit and the victim.
"I used to see them all the time. But yeah, she’s the one that shot him
and they lived right across the street from me. She's in court right now," she
boasted. Instant celebrity was hers. She knew someone that was on trial for
murder. On a north-bound bus, there was a man who claimed to be the
father of an infant child shot by a stray bullet. Encouraged by the "oohs"
and "aahs" of passengers on the bus, the gentleman told and retold his story,
each time adding a small, but increasingly gruesome, detail and vowing
that "if it's the last thing I do, somebody’s going to pay.” Although the inci
dent had occurred some months earlier and apparently already been
resolved in court, his story was granted an attentive audience for several
bus stops.
In addition to the gossips and the celebrity-seekers on the buses is an
assortment of other personality types and characters that seem to be partic
ularly peculiar to the mass transit circuit. There are those who have an
expert" opinion about everything from the A-bomb to zodiac signs. There
are passengers who talk to themselves and their imaginary companions.
Those eccentric passengers, apparently regular bus riders, go almost unno
ticed by almost everyone, except those new to bus riding (and intrigued
newspaper reporters). One woman who is well-known on her bus route car
ried on a conversation with an invisible fellow rider from the time she
boarded the bus until she got off at the bus center downtown.
"I’m going downtown to take care of things," she said, glancing and
gesturing to the "passenger." "They’re always telling me to do this. I'm just
not going to listen. I don't have to. You know what I mean? I'm going
downtown to do some things." Even more fascinating than the woman's
one-person conversation was the fact that no one paid her any attention, as
if a such an incident were a normal occurrence.
In the midst of this microcosm of the larger community, the dedicated
bus driver wheels on to his destination. Bus drivers come in all shapes,
sizes, genders and personality types. Some carry on conversations with pas
sengers, others strictly adhere to "Rule #8," posted in plain view and stipu
lating that because the "Operator must devote his full attention to safely
operating the vehicle," ....passengers should refrain from "engaging in
excessive conversation with the operator."
But some extremely personable drivers manage to greet each passenger
with a broad smile and a pleasant "How ya' doing today?" Those type
drivers, appear to be more the rule than the exception on the local routes,
although there are some who prefer to keep distance between themselves
and their passengers. And drivers do have pet peeves.
"You have got to have your fare ready when I get to the stop," one
driver reprimanded. "You know I'm coming and then you wait 'til I get
COMMUNITY
CALENDAR
FRIDAY, SEPT. 2
• The band Spex will present a jazz fusion concert at the Outta the Bag
series at Winston Square Park from noon to 1 p.m.
SATURDAY, SEPT 3
♦ The Lincoln Heights School Reunion will be held in Wilkesboro at the Old
School Park. For mwe information call 667-7805.
TUESDAY, SEPT (
The Winston-Salem Symphony Chorale will hold its annual fall tryouts
Sq)t. 6 and Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Hanes Community Center. To schedule a
tryout, .call the symphony office at 725-1035 or come by 610 Coliseum
Drive. Come prepared to sing a song of your choice. Sight reading is not
required.
The Blues Talent Contestant will present a blues concert during the Outta
the Bag series at Winston Square Park from noon to 1 p.m.
THURSDAY, SEPT 8
District Three of the North Carolina Nurses Association will meet at 7
p.m. at the F.L. Atkins Building at Winston-Salem State University. Dr. Bot
BennetL psychologisq will present the program, "Stress Management - How
to ’Diink and Laugh Your Way Out of Stress." All registered nurses are invit
ed to attend.
photos by MikeCtr ’
Travelling the 21 city bus routes often can reveal a whole new world of people, ideas and conversations.An estimated 3,2:
residents travel on Winston-Salem Transit Authority buses each year. 1
there to get your money out. That makes me late, then I’m late getting all
these people to work and wherever they've got to go. It also makes me have
to rush our older passengers who need more time. So you younger people
need to help me out Be ready when you know I’m coming."
And indeed, "Rule #1" clearly asks passengers to "Please have exact
fare or fare card ready when bus arrives."
Some sympathetic drivers will wait a second or two for passengers.
But a passenger on one route, with a child tucked under one arm, bags
tucked under the other and just yards away from a bus stop sign, was seen
frantically chasing one of the big blue and white vehicles to no avail. One
driver matter-of-factly stated after leaving an elderly woman standing at the
comer, only a few feel from an official bus stop, "That ain't no bus stop.
She don't see no sign right there. Waving don't mean nothing cos' it ain't a
bus stop on the comer where she is."
On the other hand, a driver on a Saturday route from Nonhside Shop
ping Center compassionately slopped well past an official bus stop to allow
a mother and her children to catch up to the bus. Arthur Kenner, assistant
manager of the transit authority, said his firm is in the process of adding
more bus stop signs along the routes, but that technically any intersection is
considered a bus stop regardless of whether there is a bus stop sign in
place.
Some casual friendships are formed between passengers who ride the
same routes at the same time each day. Some don't know each other's
names, but they nonetheless share seats and engage in general conversa
tions about one another’s children, grandchildren and jobs. The route that
travels through some of the integrated neighborhoods on the south side of
town provide some particularly interesting insights. There are sets of elder
ly Afro-American and white passengers, daily bus riders, who years ago
could not even ride the same bus together, much less share a seat But,
bound by the rigors of their bus travel and "golden years," they have found
common ground. Unfazed by any historical significance of their association
or the irony of iq they share war stories, home remedies for various aches
and pains and news of family births.
And contrary to popular belief, it is not just the poor or downtrodden
who ride public buses. Everyone rides the bus. During the busiest parts of
the day, you are apt to see bank and corporate employees waiting their turn
to board buses alongside laborers and students. Reasons other than poverty
prompt many to travel on the buses. There are youngsters new to the work
force, saving money to buy their first car, and corporate workers who opt to
pay the nominal bus fare and avoid the high fees charged for daily and
monthly downtown parking.
"I have a car and my husband has a car but I just don't like driving in
die traffic everyday," said one passenger headed downtown to her job. "I’d
just as soon take the bus. I don't have to be worried about driving in the
snow and all the bad weather and I don’t have to spend lime hunung for a
parking space and I certainly don’t want to pay $100 a month just to park
near my job."
"I should have enough money soon to buy me a car," commented a
nurses assistant traveling one of the west side routes. "I’ve been able to
save money riding the bus and I was able to get an apartment:
better able to afford a car and I don’t have a problem riding ihets i
limes I have time to study while I'm riding back and forth andico ^
that if I were driving."
The transit authority services approximately 270,000 passet;
month on the 21 routes that run across the city. It is possible to rea I
any destination within the city limits by carefully selecting rouiei, ^
The addition of several new services also has expanded boiti: *
ber and variety of residents riding city buses. The addition oft ‘
buses has made it more convenient for persons working nightorl ^
at work to get to and from work. Kenner said that the night servitj ^
very successful and tfru the authority hopes to be able to add mo! ^
The paths of a broad range of city residents cross cn»
bus routes
the two that now must cover the entire south and north sides
making trips to the mall.
The new kids on the block in city transit are the two troll
of the iroUeys follows a route that ends at Old Salem; the ol
the West End side of town. Kenner said response to the troll
very good. Fare on the trolley, which also acts as a type of c
vice for downtown employees, is 25 cents.
We're pretty pleased with the response we've gotten to
said Kenner, who added that the trolleys are not purely for aesi
es. On SepL 6, we're going to start Saturday service on the 01
ley. There s some indication that we may even be increasing tl
visitors to Old Salem by providing the trolley service."
SOCIAL NOTES
'Parenting Today’ session set by AKA chapter, NAA(
b)
th
foi
s
Phi Omega Chapter of
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
Inc. and the local NAACP
Learning Centers will co-spon
sor "Parenting Today: Issues
and Answers, a seminar for par
ents with an emphasis on educa
tion and the black family Satur
day, Sept. 17, at 1 p.m. in the
Communications Building at
Winston-Salem State Universi
ty-
The seminar, featuring pan
elists and question/answer ses
sions, is open to the public at
no charge.
Topics and presenters will
include: "Education and the
Black Family" by Palmer
Friende, a retired administrator
from the local school system;
"Preparing Students for the
SAT" by Dr. Leroy Fails,
regional director of the College
Board in Atlanta; "Interpersonal
Relationships Between Parents
and Children” by Dr. Myrna B.
Williams, a local psychologist;
Drug Awareness" by a preven
tion specialist for STEP ONE,
The Center for Drug Abuse; and
"You and Your School Board"
by Buford Bailey, a member of
the local school board
Door prizes will
tickets to the WSSUvi
stone College fooibt
that evening.
Annette Wilson is-
of the Phi Omega cliJ;
Waller Marshall is
the Winston-Salem Cl"
the NAACP. Bessie ^
program coordinator.
Nursing sorority awards $1,000 scholarship to Monica Cff
Monica Crews of Winston-
Salem State University recently was
awarded a $1,000 scholarship by
Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority Inc.
The scholarship award was
presented Saturday. Aug. 27, by the
local chapter, Chi Chi, during their
annual picnic and program.
president of the AssociaUon of Stu
dent Nurses.
Mrs. Crews, a native of Milton,
is a senior nursing student and is
She was one of 15 students
selected nationally by the sorority
in the awarding of more than
$20,000 in scholarships. The schol
arship award is named for founder
Aliene Carrington Ewell who,
along with 11 other nurses, orga
nized the sorority in 1932. Scholar
ship recipients are selected on the
basis of scholastic ability, interest in
nursing, leadership ability and other
qualities.
The picnic and program were
held at Reynolds Park. Attending
the picnic were family and friends
of Mrs. Crews. Members of the
WSSU nursing school also were in
attendance. They included Sadie
Webster, director; and Mj
Jeffries. Chapter memj
came out for the event
Chi chapter officers
Wilks, basileus;
lough, anti-basileus; W
grammetus; Velma
toleus; Annie
tamiochus: Mildred Smi
\toinia Thombs, dean
" . . hicfnrii
and Ann Moore. W**