Of buses and daughters
Rob Price

My muffler exploded with a loud boom as I drove my daughter home from some after-school engagement. "Did you hear that?" I said.

"Yeah," she said, in that talkative style so common among high school seniors.

The car seemed to lose some of its forward propulsion, and there was a clanking sound underneath. Obviously, the explosion was something on the order of "Houston, we have a problem," and not something to be ignored.

And so the car has been in the shop the past couple days, with my friendly mechanics awaiting a replacement muffler. The good news is, the old muffler was still under warranty. The bad news is, getting to and from work remains a daily requirement of my life.

But there's a golden lining in my current car troubles, and it's called Hornell Area Transit. For a mere $1.25, a bus owned and operated by the City of Hornell stops alongside a city curb and opens its door, allowing me to climb aboard and ride all the way to Bath; later in the day, a similar process repeats itself, and I ride a bus home. An extra bonus is the bus driver, who always says, "Hi Rob."

When it comes to getting myself to and from work, the only form of transportation I prefer to a HAT bus is my actual car, with the radio tuned to a station I enjoy and a working muffler that creates a pleasant hum in the rear area.

That being out of the question, a HAT bus is a good back-up option. Beyond the cheap price, an important positive feature of the bus is the other passengers, many of whom know, and even like, each other.

One of my neighbors is a regular rider, and we used the half hour ride Tuesday to catch up on important matters. Scooter Libby had just been convicted of perjury, and isn't this a fine commentary on the Bush administration? And wasn't Eisenhower's development of the interstate highway system a good example of how Republican presidents make use of a strong federal government?

Oh, and by the way, my neighbor and his wife were about to leave for South Carolina, where their daughter was due to deliver a set of triplets.

Sixteen years ago, my friend's daughter was the first neighborhood kid who visited us when we bought our house. She came to see my daughter, who was one year old. Now, I told my friend, my daughter is waiting to hear from the colleges she applied to; and meanwhile my friend is about to become a grandparent - three times over.

Yikes!

If there is a downside to riding the public transportation system, it would be the inconvenience - relative to driving your own vehicle. The one unavoidable fact about riding a public bus is, you have to be at the right place at the right time in order to board it.

This involves getting hold of a bus schedule, reading it and planning your day accordingly. That's why riding buses is really not for children, who are genetically incapable of planning anything. Children tend to assume their ride will appear out of nowhere when they're ready for it. A familiar face, belonging to a parent, will be behind the wheel. The correct change isn't necessary.

If this sounds a little bit like your child, and you are wondering whether you are going to spend the rest of your life jumping into a car to take them somewhere, I can assure you, children do grow up. Many in fact go to college, and while you wait for the college acceptance letter you lose several years off your life.

Some children even go to college, get married and then have triplets.

Yikes!

In the meantime, some even master a few skills of adulthood, like riding buses. My own daughter recently figured out how to ride the HAT bus from Alfred to Hornell, and I for one consider this a major accomplishment. I was very excited when she successfully boarded the correct bus, disembarked at the right intersection and found her way home, and I told her so.

"What was it like?" I said.

"Fine," she said.

"Is that it?" I said. "Didn't anything happen?"

"No," she said. And that was all she was going to say about riding the bus. She may have learned how to do something important, but she's still a teenager.