A heated encounter on the Irving Park bus
My wife was on the 80X Irving Park heading east one night last week. She saw a 40-ish guy across the aisle, wearing a UPS uniform, totally engrossed in his phone, texting away, minding his own business.
A guy boarded at Western wearing a white windbreaker and Cubs cap -- a big guy all around. As he was barreling down the aisle, his leg brushed against the foot of UPS man. He turned and shouted, "Excuse you too, mother fucker!" The UPS guy looked up from the phone and said incredulously, "Excuse me? What did you just say to me?"
The big guy said, "Yeah you heard me, you piece of shit!" The UPS guy said, "Well I said excuse me. Happy now?"
The guy shouted back: "Fuck you, you piece of shit!" The UPS guy said: "That's nice. You gotta real problem pal."
The big guys said: "Do you want to get off this bus and deal with my problem? You're all talk, you white mother fucker."
My wife has heard enough. She turned to the big guy and said, "Stop it right now!" He ignored her and continued to hurl verbal abuse at the UPS guy, who was giving back as good as he got.
Finally, at Irving and Ashland, my wife complained to the driver, who stopped the bus, got off and whistled for a cop. The officer arrived a couple of seconds later. Meanwhile, the passengers are getting pissed because they are now being delayed. And, both the idiots walked out the back door and left.
Then a young woman on the bus looked at my wife and said: "I rode the Metra with that UPS guy all the way from Palatine. And he was fighting with somebody on the phone during the entire train ride. He must have been in a really bad mood."
Three weeks ago when you mentioned in a post that it was your wife's birthday, I wished her a full year of no encounters with insane people on the Irving Park bus. It didn't even last a month. Sigh. I wonder what happened after the assailants got off the bus.
Posted by: Martha | May 13, 2008 at 11:36 AM
While I grow weary of irritating behavior on the buses and trains, I guess it's to be expected when you have millions of people of all walks of life and personalities using the same conveyance. Thanks to your wife for telling them both to shut hell up.
however I have a good story: Was my usual grumpy self on the 136 one morning when I saw some woman on the front of the bus walking back and forth between the passengers, the front door and the bus drive. Great, I thought, another crazy person bothering the passengers. After watching her for a while I see her stick something in the front right hand corner of the bus window (near the door). She has been working on a handwritten "136" sign. The regular electronic bus signs were out of order and to help the bus driver from to having to explain his route at every stop and to inform waiting passengers, she took it upon herself to make a sign. Cool.
Posted by: Dude | May 13, 2008 at 11:59 AM