Getting There

TUESDAY, MAY 17
A very gray, chilly day, reminiscent of November. I join a line of about 20 riders and we slowly shuffle up to the head of the line. As I get close I see about 8 cars suddenly pulling up. What starts to happen is that riders approaching the line, stop approaching and just start getting into cars (hey!). The way the Vallejo line is set up is that the road where drivers approach is right next to the sidewalk where riders walk up to the line – makes it easy to kinda cheat and just jump into a car without walking up to the end of the line. When my turn comes I walk past a couple of cars that already have their quota and suddenly a lady’s head leans out of a car window and says, “Would you like to come, too?” As though she were inviting me to come along on some fun outing or great adventure. She had a cheery British accent and that made the invitation sound even more appealing.

So I and all my baggage pile into the other half of the back seat, already occupied by an Asian-American guy, who had been one of the afore-mentioned cheaters. “Kind of a free-for-all out there today”, I comment. “Yes, we’d noticed”, the British lady turned around and said, rolling her eyes in the direction of the fellow next to me.

As we started off, she introduced herself, “Caroline” and her non-British friend, the driver, also introduced herself, “Susan”, so of course I did too. We all smiled and drove off. The front seat passenger, the British lady, had very long hair in dreadlocks, many piercings, no makeup and was curled up in the seat eating some sort of fruit and cereal meal from a glass bowl. She was wearing well-worn and strategically torn jeans. The driver had Harry Potter red-rimmed glasses and was wearing an odd-looking crocheted black hat interspersed with small white fabric flowers and a pair of bright red gloves.

They both apologized for a broken rear window, the small part of the rear window, right next to where I was sitting. An attempt had been made to repair the missing glass with a piece of plastic and lots of bright yellow tape. Which hissed and flapped as we picked up speed. I asked how it had happened, and they were a little vague, but Susan said, “it actually came in handy this morning. I’d left the car keys locked in the car all night, so I was able to get in and retrieve them!” What good luck. You never know when a broken window will come in handy.

The front car seats were both covered with a black furry seat cover and on the top of each seat was a tie-dyed jersey jester hat. Lots of little clutter and objects were spilling out of the drink holder between the 2 seats.

In spite of the Mary Poppins ambience and general feeling of recycled chaos, or maybe because of it, the ride was very comfy and secure. The flower-headed driver drove us safely along in her well-used Toyota sedan as she and her friend chatted away, non stop. Unfortunately I could not hear them because the patched rear window was becoming undone and the effect was like being in a wind tunnel.

My Asian companion never said a word and in fact, barely moved. He kept his hands folded over a leather briefcase he held on his lap, occasionally tapping out an accompaniment to some inner rhythm.

When we pulled up to the stop in San Francisco, I realized I could not open my door. The rear handle had broken off. Susan quickly got out of the car and opened the door from the outside. “The car has a lot of interesting features,” she said. Both ladies chuckled. And so did I. I thanked them for a very pleasant ride and went on my way. Cheerio!

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FRIDAY, MARCH 18
Delighted to step right into a car with no wait this cold drizzly morning. I recognize car and driver from an earlier ride this week. This is an older Lexus, very comfy and warm. Dad is driving and his little boy is sleeping in the back seat. Similar situation as another ride this week, with a dad driving to work and taking his son to school in San Francisco. Like the other dad, they are somewhat new to the area and to the Casual Carpool. “I might switch him to a Vallejo school after we get to know the area better”. We chat about the weather, carpooling and then discover we have both lived in St. Louis. He was born there and lived there until 1999, when he moved – first to Las Vegas, before coming to San Francisco.

I lived in St. Louis for only 5 years, arriving a few days before the Kennedy assassination and leaving for California in 1967, the year the St. Louis arch was completed. We have a great time talking about the grand old city on the Mississippi River. “First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League” was the old reference to St. Louis when the St. Louis Browns baseball team was there, apparently not doing very well, when Anheuser Bush and over 50 other breweries were brewing the beer, and when George Warren Brown started what became a huge shoe manufacturing industry (remember Buster Brown shoes?) in St. Louis. “The breweries are pretty well gone”, he says. I imagine most of the shoe factories are, too. It’s hard to find a pair of shoes made in the U.S. today. And the St. Louis Cardinals have redeemed the the city’s baseball reputation by winning the World Series – 10 times! In 1926, 1932, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1964 (when I lived there), 1967, 1982, and just a few years ago in 2006.

He misses St. Louis. “I liked Las Vegas – it was a lot of fun, but I’ve never really felt at home in California. St. Louis is my town.” Turns out he’s a singer, part of a group who sang with the Temptations in Las Vegas. “That’s why I left St. Louis, for the job in Vegas. It was a great time.”

He was at rehearsal last night, getting ready to audition on the new Simon Cowell talent show this fall – The X Factor, the British show that spawned American Idol. How’s that for a Casual Carpool ride!

Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Today's Commute, Uncategorized | Leave a comment »