IT'S ALL GOOD

[schlomo]

It’s All Good

After I took care of my 100-year-old “Mum” on Sunday morning,  I began (as I usually do) walking a half mile to a bus stop that services routes 2, 13, and 8 heading towards Waikiki. Considering that yesterday was a Sunday as well as New Year’s Day, I figured that TheBus would be running on an especially reduced schedule. Man, was I wrong. As I was plodding along, three Bus 2 vehicles soon passed by me. How odd! Then as I got within sight of the bus stop that gave me handy access to three buses, Bus 8 and then Bus 13 plunged ahead of me. When I finally reached my stop, no buses were in sight.

Because the humidity was high and my hip was sore, I hoped that the barrage of buses would continue. I was wrong. After 15 minutes, no buses arrived. I started to get frustrated. But I was soon cheered up. A friendly group of Canadians my age entered the bus stop area. After they quizzed me about the current bus schedule, I related my slightly surreal encounters with so many buses in such a short time. The snowbirds were just as clueless as I was. It was a mystery, as my youngest granddaughter would whisper. 

Soon, we swapped stories about our past. It turns out that one of the men had the same unnerving experience as I had back in the early 1970’s. As my wife and I for the first time approached the Bible-Belt city of Smithfield, NC, we were aghast: a huge banner hung across an overpass: It said, “Welcome to Klan Country.” Ouch! Immediately, the Canadian related that he and his wife on a trip to Missouri were just as appalled to see blatant signs of the Klan. At one of the malls they shopped at, there was a booth exclusively devoted to Klan paraphernalia and propaganda. Both of us then comforted ourselves, noting that Vancouver and Honolulu are abidingly liberal cities. At that moment, Bus 13 arrived. All of us got on it, but the Canadians sat together further back.

Even though our instant camaraderie was short-lived, it was heartening to chat with someone who shared one of my most cherished values: fervid support of a multigenerational, multicultural, multiracial society, a hallmark of Hawaii—erratic bus scheduling notwithstanding.