BUS STORY # 420 (My Daughter’s Kinda Sorta Albuquerque Bus Story # 1)

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A few weeks ago, my daughter called me from her home in Brooklyn to tell me about a party she’d attended the evening before. She told me she’d been conversing in a group when she overheard someone in a nearby group say the words “Albuquerque” and “ride the bus.” Intrigued, she extricated herself from her companions and joined the other group, four twenty-somethings who grew up in Albuquerque but were now living in New York.

They were swapping Albuquerque stories, including stories about riding the bus. One of them lived in the Bronx and was commuting to NYU, a one-hour commute. Someone else said they couldn’t believe anyone could tolerate a one-hour public transit commute, but he replied he’d been well conditioned by using ABQ RIDE.

One of the four confessed she’d never ridden ABQ RIDE because she’d heard stories. They teased her for being a “bourgeois” (which I learned is now pronounced “BOO-zhee” by folks much younger and much further away from Albuquerque than I am). They told her the stories were among the best reasons for riding the bus. And then they started telling bus stories. That is when my daughter told them her father wrote a blog featuring bus stories he collected while riding the bus in Albuquerque.

She told me all four transplants still love Albuquerque and New Mexico. One of them showed off a zia tattoo. The reluctant Albuquerque bus rider said she wanted to get a tattoo of crisscrossing red and green chiles. All of them explained that New Mexico was cool, Colorado was meh, Arizona sucked, and Texas really sucked. My daughter kept her native-born Texan status to herself.

I’m not a native New Mexican. I love New Mexico, too, but I spent most of my growing up years in Texas. I have family and friends in all three neighboring states. I’ve driven through and spent time in much of all of them, and they each have their own unique geographical and cultural charms. I don’t mind confessing I wish we had a light rail and integrated regional transportation like Dallas does. I’m hoping for future public transportation experiences in Denver and Phoenix. (Mrs. Busboy and I did ride the trolley in Tucson back in 2008.)

Getting a call from my darlin’ daughter is always special, but to get an Albuquerque bus story from her all the way from Brooklyn... Well, that’s all sick, huh? (Local not-bourgeois kid slang for “priceless.”)