BUS STORY # 477 (The Kindness Of Strangers)

Downloaded from Busted Halo.

My daughter lives in Brooklyn. This is the story she told me about a time she took the A train to JFK.


If you’re taking the A train to JFK airport in NYC, you want to take the route to Far Rockaway, not the route to Lefferts Boulevard. Think of it like the San Mateo bus here: if you want to get to all those office complexes south of Balloon Fiesta Park, you take the 140, not the 141.

My daughter was going to JFK when the A train pulled into her station. It was going the other way, but she was anxious to get going, and she knew she could transfer later at an above-ground station.

She’d just taken a seat and pulled her suitcase up beside her when a young man approached her asking if she was going to the airport.

Yes she was.

Ah, well, he explained, this route didn’t go to the airport, and he told her which station to get off at to get on the correct route.

She didn’t feel the need to explain herself, and simply thanked him.

He asked where she was from.

Well... She told him she was from Brooklyn and laughed a little sheepishly.

Ah, so she already knew all this.

Yes she did, but she very much appreciated his thoughtfulness and willingness to help out someone who might well have been lost.

It can be confusing, he acknowledged, and said he usually offered to help anyone he saw with a suitcase.

My daughter got off at her station. She was waiting for the train, her suitcase by her side, when she was approached by a teenaged girl who explained to her the next train coming was the train to the airport. She thanked the girl for being so helpful, and felt really good about her fellow New Yorkers.