I love my little second job, driving public transportation for SPAN. It gives me an opportunity to take a break from the all consuming new life of real estate.
Driving for me is very relaxing and I get to meet so many different kinds of people. And SPAN gives me the opportunity to help people who are older, mentally handicapped, or ill have a little freedom in their lives.
And I meet some very interesting ones. Just this week I picked up a 30ish year old young mentally handicapped man who is apparently a savant.....about NASCAR, of all things. For the duration of our drive, about 20 minutes, he spoke very intelligently about statistics, names, and pretty much all things racing and exotic cars. I don't think I've ever met a savant before so it was quite interesting and really amazing. Fun!
Another day this last week I picked another mentally handicapped young man who truly has to be the most pleasant person I've ever been around. From the time he stepped on the bus till he got off he was smiling, conversing happily with the couple of older people that were onboard at the time. And when he smiled, his whole face lit up and his eyes squinted and became little smiles too. I mean I've been around happy people before but this guy just seemed different. The closest I can come to describing him might just be Santa. I take these happy little events as real blessings.
There's this older Japanese man I pick up periodically and he was about seven during WWII. He lived in California at the time and he remembers that his family was given the option of moving to Nevada so that's what they did instead of being relocated to an internment camp. I didn't know they had a choice but that's what he said.
Then there's the Yankee ladies. Pardon me if I offend anybody but I can usually tell pretty quickly the first time one of these sweet (or not so much) ladies open their mouths. Partly because they have accents but partly because of their attitudes which is usually very sure of themselves and they don't care who knows it. Most of them have moved down south to follow their adult children who've come here for jobs.
People! As my mom used to say, "It takes all kinds!"
