Day 3: North Beach
On this morning, I found myself making my way to North Beach for a haircut. Yes, I’ve moved up in the world from getting my hair cut in a truck that shows up at my work. Well, sort of. Actually, I was heading to Public Barber Salon to see Marina, who I met when she used to cut my hair in the truck that came to my work… She’s far too good at what she does to keep working in a truck forever, though. So, I found myself heading to North Beach.
I found myself heading to North Beach on Muni. I should make that distinction. I rarely make it over to North Beach. When I do, I almost never ride Muni: There are just far too many transfers involved from my house. On this day, though, I opted for the bus. Leaving the Montgomery Station, I headed over to Kearny to catch the 8BX bus.
While I waited, I was treated to some Muni-tainment when the 30-Stockton (or maybe it was the 45, I’m not certain) showed up first. This bus was already packed, and there were at least 20-30 people at the stop waiting. As soon as the doors opened, the rush began, with passengers pushing on until there was no space left and then pushing some more. As the bus filled up to the point that people were hanging out of the back door, they kept trying, with some hanging on with just one foot on the lowest step. Eventually, the driver had to get out of the bus and walk to the back to start pulling people out of the bus until there was room for the doors to close. As soon as they were removed, a couple individuals started to head to the front door. The exasperated driver gave chase, yelling something along the lines of, “No! No! No! You can’t get on this bus! There’s another one a minute behind me!”. And as he ran back to the front, more people tried to get in the back… This cycle was truly fascinating to watch, but I had to go when my 8BX showed up. After being shoved out of the way by a very small woman, I managed to get some space on board, thankful that the 8 is a larger vehicle.
I suppose no one wants to wait a minute for the next bus.
(shot with another waterproof Canon Sureshot A1 Himalayan snow leopard camera, on some Fuji 200 film from Walgreens)
