Today’s my birthday and I don’t really want anything this year. However, next year I will be 50 and I am hoping for something to mark my half a century on this planet. Before I tell you what it is, I will mention something I may have talked about, but hadn’t gone into detail of why I am so fascinated with it.
I like buses and yes, I’m blind and I still enjoy going on the bus. Put me on a highway coach or a school bus, I’m happy to be riding on something with 4 or more wheels on it. Well, I’m not exactly a fan of mini buses because, to me they’re just like cars with the bus body and chassis. They sound like cars and not like he trucks we would hear every day.
When I was younger, I used to hear all sorts of trucks outside my parents place and even the odd highway coach, public transit bus and even a school bus. Obviously, I would hear cars go by, but it was always the trucks and buses which I would listen for, when at home, or going on walks with my mom or other people. I would always be told that it was a truck of some kind, or a school bus and this video is a perfect example of what I used to hear, outside my house in the borough of East York in Toronto in the 70s, the 80s and part of the 90s. https://youtu.be/C4f0U66SNUg
Compare the sound of that with today’s Diesel school buses, which do not have any wine to the gears and are frankly, sounding rather boring to me. I also enjoyed riding on greyhound buses when I was young, because I went to school and back on them every week during the school year. I had told the story of my travel day, when I and other students would be going home for the weekend on Fridays. This is what the buses sounded like back in the 70s, 80s and the 90s when I was still in school. https://youtu.be/auGGA8xxqOA
Okay, now that you have had a chance to watch both videos, I hope that you were listening with years instead of your eyes. If you were paying attention to what each bus was doing and how they both sounded, that is what I want when I turn 50. No, I can’t drive a bus, because I am blind. But, I can ride in one or the other, or both if it is possible for me to get a ride on them throughout the day. Yeah, that’s what I want, a ride in both or either an old and long since retired school bus and an equally as old and long since retired highway coach. Ever since the pandemic, I had started watching Youtube videos of guys driving buses of all kinds and I also had a chance to learn more about what I used to ride on and when the buses were active. So, my wish is to ride on a number of school and highway coach buses next June 2nd, when I become among those who have lived a half a Century.
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