Hamilton This Week

*Not my photo, but free stock image -
this is not a portrait of any of the people in
this story.

I feel like I have only a few little stories to tell, as nothing too exciting has happened as of late. I will, however, provide a few glimpses of the things and people I witnessed this week while either on, or waiting for the bus.

1) I witnessed two homeless men fight

They did not throw punches, but I felt like it could have escalated to that. I was standing on the corner of York Boulvard and Park waiting for the bus when I heard yelling. It was coming from across the street at the men's shelter. An older man with long grey hair, wearing a puffy orange winter coat was yelling at another homeless man with long grey hair and winter clothes who was walking away. The orange coat wearing man started following him, yelling as he walked. Finally the other man turned around to address him. This is where they stood practically nose to nose yelling at each other. I couldn't understand what they were saying, aside from the occasional curse word. Eventually orange coat man gave up, and let the other guy continue on.

2) The laziest guy in Hamilton...maybe

I get on the Barton bus in front on Hamilton General Hospital on Wellington Street North. The next stop after is in front of the Barton street jail. This is one block away, a five minute walk, max. A guy gets on at this stop and sees that his buddy is on the bus too. They start chatting and his friend asks him where he's heading. He tells his friend he's going to Wellington street, but was too lazy to walk or wait for the eastbound bus, so he decided he was just going to ride the bus until it turned around and headed back to Wellington. This guy was slim, able bodied, and perfectly healthy from what I could see. He was just, as he said, lazy. Outsiders often label Hamiltonians as lazy, and people like this guy are not doing a very good job at convincing us otherwise.

3) Not all my stories are about Hamiltonians

I have seen this guy before, and it's always the same...he's either really drunk or incredibly stoned. I'm talking, can't walk straight. He wobbles, he squints his eyes, his movements are sluggish, and dopey. He's visibly messed up, and often does stupid, dangerous things, such as stumble down onto the road to look for the bus. Or wave around a lit cigarette with reckless abandon. Today he did something even more unusual - he started to shadow box. Just out of nowhere started throwing some punch combinations as if there was an invisible heavy bag in front of him. When the bus arrive he somehow hauled himself up onto the step, and made his way to the back. I did my best to avoid sitting anywhere near him. This was on the bus home to Burlington. See, some Burlingtonians are weird too.

Losing your bus pass, and other crappy things that happen while commuting

The Barton Bus

I am a routine girl. Every morning I do things in the same order. I wake up, go to the kitchen and turn on the kettle and make myself a quick breakfast of toast or cereal. I make my tea, then sit in the living room and eat. At roughly 6:30 am I will get dressed, then wash my face and put my makeup on. I then fix my hair, take my lunch (that I made the night before) out of the fridge and put it in my bag. I then check that I have the following two items:

1) My phone
2) My transit card

I don't even care if I forget my wallet, as long as I have these two things in my pocket when I leave.

On Friday, I slept in, which threw my whole morning into chaos. However, I still managed to leave on time, and with both my phone and bus pass on me. I should also mention that due to the extreme cold weather we've been experiencing lately, I was dressed extra warm - including a pair of fuzzy Hudson's Bay red mittens from last Olympics.

I don't know how many of you wear mittens on the regular, but I must say while they keep your hands toasty, they make holding items difficult.

Once I got to Hamilton, I got on the #4 bus - The Bayfront - tapped on using my bus pass, and took a seat in the middle of the bus. The 8:22 am Bayfront bus is not very full usually, so I set my purse and bag on the seat next to me. When we arrived at my stop, right outside my office, I grabbed my bags and headed in to work.

When I got to my office my computer was giving me a hard time - not wanting to start up properly - so while I waited for it to boot up, I did a quick inventory of all my stuff. I grabbed the metallic blue case I keep my bus pass in and opened it and saw that my card wasn't there. I then checked all my pockets, and my purse and the pass was no where I be found. I then ran outside in the snow and re-traced my steps attempting to locate the bright green card. It was gone.

I assume it slipped out of my mitten and was probably on the seat where I put all my bags.

I went online and reported it missing and requested a new card. It should take about a week for my new card to arrive. I started to panic - checking my wallet to see if I had enough change to get home with.

Thanks to a generous co-worker, I was given a bus ticket to get me home.

Fast forward to the end of the work day. I step onto the #2 Barton bus with my ticket and I realize that I have no idea where a bus ticket goes! I was so embarrassed having to ask the driver. After taking the bus for close to 5 months now, I had no idea where bus tickets were deposited. The driver was nice and told me, and gave me a transfer to get on my next bus with. I felt like I was new to the bus all over again!

Thankfully, after the annoying commute, my mom picked me up from the station and we went out for dinner and drinks.

Welcome to My Bus Life

Bus stop at York & Park - Hamilton, Ontario. Photo by me

To start this off I should inform you that I am indeed a Burlingtonian...Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario. Everything posted in this blog will be from the biased opinion of a sheltered suburban girl, so try not to judge me too harshly. This is my world view.

To begin, let me tell you the story of me and the bus...

When I was a little girl I lived closed to my school. My brother and I were taught how to get to and from school on foot. We sometimes walked with our neighbourhood friends, or would catch a ride if possible. But I was not a bus kid.

The kids that took the school bus would line up behind paper signs with their bus number written on them. I would simply grab my backpack and walk, or ride my bike home. School buses were simply for class trips to science museums, or pioneer villages - not for day-to-day travel.

My parent's both drive, so taking us places was always easy. Even as we grew more independent, we could always rely on a ride from mom or dad to the mall, or to a friend's house. It was never even suggested that we take the city bus. The only time I ever took the city bus was with my grandma - who would occasionally take us to the mall. But even then, I didn't have to think about where we were going and when to pull the stop request cord thing - she would do all that.

When I was 19 and started university in Toronto, I had to learn to take the TTC bus myself. Lucky for me there were some off-campus trips offered to first year students the week before classes started. I learned how to take the bus to the subway stop in order to get downtown. I fancied myself quite the city-girl by the time I moved back to the suburbs when I graduated, four years later. But alas, my new-found bus taking skills were rendered useless, as I ended up working locally, within walking distance...until recently.

I took a job in September in Hamilton....Steeltown...The Hammer...the place everyone loves to hate. Not wanting to buy a car or move there led me to conclude that the only way for me to get to work was to bus it. We're so lucky these days with technology that can tell us how to get places. With Google's guidance, and some co-worker's help, I navigated the parts of the city I needed to get to with ease.

Taking the city buses has exposed me to the bones and guts and innards of Hamilton. The Plains Road Express bus takes me out of my protective bubble, and drops me seconds away from a men's homeless shelter. The Bayfront bus takes me through a gentrified artist's community to the dying industrial wasteland. On the way home though is where I experience the full spectrum of the human experience.  The Barton Bus. The bus that can be as tame as a lamb or a wild, and as unpredictable as a hobo with a bag of cans. This is the heart of Hamilton. This bus drops me across from Jackson Square, where the homeless kids with mohawks hold their paper signs. Then I walk to the bus stop where the sidewalk is peppered with cigarette butts, pigeon feces, spit, and discarded Tim Horton's cups. I can't help but stare as the drama unfolds. Then my bus comes and takes me home.

This blog is for my friends and co-workers who kept saying, "you should turn your bus stories into a blog." I will try my best to share my tales of the kooky cast of characters I cross paths with during my morning and evening commutes.

Enjoy!