BUS STORY # 356 (Stroller)

Downloaded from the January 8, 2013, YMC post, “Stroller Mom Lodges Complaint Against Bus Driver.”

I watch a couple with a large stroller board this morning.  The father puts the stroller in front of the empty bench seats across from the driver.  It takes up the space in front of all three seats.  He pulls the child out of the stroller and sits on the bench seats across the aisle, with the child on his lap.

His wife has also taken one of the bench seats, and placed a large bag in the middle seat between her and her husband.

The driver tells them they won’t be able to block access to the bench seats, and that they’ll have to fold the stroller up and out of the way.

It’s a refreshing surprise, but neither of them argues with the driver.  Dad hands his wife the baby, then gets up and moves the stroller down the aisle – it’s a tight fit – to the space in front of the rear doors.

He begins unloading the stroller.  I watch him pull bags and a small backpack and sacks from the stroller and place them under the seats in front of the back doors.  After a while, I think of that stroller as the tiny circus car that a hundred clowns get out of, one at a time.  He removes a bunch of smaller things and finds places in the larger bags to store them.  He is diligent and patient.

The process lasts through several stops, and riders are all moving to the front doors to exit.

Finally, the stroller is empty, the space under the seats is stuffed full, and he folds the stroller up and leans it against the pole in front of the rear door.  He has to stand behind it to keep it upright, which effectively obstructs about half the exit space.

I exit before they do (through the front door), and so miss watching them go through the process of getting off the bus.  After watching him unload and fold, just imagining that process reminds me of something my mother used to say: “God knew what He was doing when He gave children to young people.”