There she was, an early 20-something girl on the platform at the terminus, her hand vainly trying to poke outside the open doors in a futile attempt to keep her cigarette smoke from entering the vehicle. Giggling she was, to a fairly nonplussed driver who must’ve been at least 15 years her senior. And then it occurred to me. How successful we’d been at banishing the groupie girl from the platform.
Once upon a time, these nymphs seemed all too common. Certain drivers had the charm or the presence to attract what might be seen, in their eyes, as welcome attention from the opposite sex. It was like bees to jam or iron filings to a magnet. Or, it was the other way round. Some girls would see the driver as an easy target, a sitting duck, someone who couldn’t escape, no matter what. 
I’m not for one moment suggesting that things were anything other than appropriate or that they got out of hand, so to speak. But the fact was that this sort of thing was quite commonplace, either at a terminus or, worse, while the vehicle was moving. It obviously still happens but in seeing this event it hit me that it was now much rarer than it used to be. I would add that this particular bus wasn’t one of mine.
In spite of those recruitment adverts that proclaim that you get to meet people while driving a bus, the job can actually be very isolating in nature. Yes, you *do* (or should!) happen upon countless people but these are brief and superficial encounters. When someone pays you some attention, it’s difficult not to be flattered. But a passenger on the platform sends all sorts of wrong signals to others on the bus. It potentially adversely affects safety. And it’s against the regs (while the vehicle is in motion).
Oh, and have they actually paid a fare?
Thursday, 2 February 2012
The Driver’s Moll
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16 comments:
Those were the days of my driving youth! All those lovely nymphettes who used to hang around the bus station. You'd chat one up, she would come for a ride, you'd jump in the cab - then when you got to the terminus you would find your conductor had pulled her! (-:
Of course today's blog has nothing to do with Brighton and Hove babes?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4101318/Bus-drivers-banned-from-calling-women-love.html LOL
Here's an article from the original requester, somewhat bemused by the media attention her email has received.
I don't like being called "mate" very much, so can understand why someone wouldn't want to be called "babe". Thankfully, drivers in my hometown tend to abstain from the local "cock"...
And what about "me luvver" sometime used in Devon? Very embarrassing to a a male, when used by a woman with a rear of a PSV visage. OTOH if she were just the opposite could be just as embarrassing if the OH heard and was not up with the usage of term.
Funny and puzzking that when everything else has no boundaries in taste, such a fuss is made over one little word.
I see this lady(hope I'm OK with that) has chosen to use a photo of a pseudo-typical 1970s bus company to remark on a particularly good present century one.So,to quote a phrase from that golden era of telly that she must like..."What a silly moo".
And all this was in stiff and starchy Brighton.Now if it had been Hove...
The driver's platform has always attracted a certain 'type' - they tend not to be too loyal either. Although it's true; you don't see it so much these days - maybe the increased usage of Assault Screens has been a contributing factor?
As for terms of endearment, everyone is a Love or Duck where I come from, male or female. All part of the patter, the only time I get funny looks is down South.
JimmyMac said...
"Here's an article from the original requester, somewhat bemused by the media attention her email has received."
Some people do have strange logic. The lady complained to the bus operator about being called 'babe', and said 'language matters', but then didn't expect the company to issue a list of 'approved' words. Er ..., what did she expect the operator to do?
Is it asking too much to expect that people can distinguish between a word used in a negative (e.g. demeaning) manner, and that same word used simply as a gesture of friendliness, which is probably the case about 99% of the time insofar as bus drivers' interactions with passengers are concerned?
Further to previous comment, I see that on this page, where the lady explains why it all started:-
http://pleasedontcallmebabe.tumblr.com/howitallstarted
she quotes her email to the bus operator, which says:-
"Please can you brief your drivers about more suitable language which allows them to be polite and chatty without being inappropriate?"
But then she didn't actually want them to issue a list.....
Ho hum. End - I've got better things to do!
As a very young conductor in the early seventies, I was paired with a 55-year old driver who had 5 girlfriends dotted around the county. This pretty much dictated our service reliability and timings. Once, while crewing a Bristol RE, he got his face slapped by a passenger after making a remark. Oh, and sometimes I had both his wife and GF #1 on the bus at the same time. I could write a book - if only I had kept diaries...
Depressing thought for the day: there aren't many whores who demand payment up front...
I recall an outstation driver who had a wife and no fewer than three girlfriends all on the same short route - quite aside from wondering what he had that I lacked (a deathwish perhaps?) I often wondered what'd happen if he picked them all up on the same trip??
Mind you, I recall another driver who was running two simultaneously in adjoining houses. How some folk got away with what they did, I just don't know!
Some of these anecdotes appear to be from Luxton & District's cemetery gates route.
Here on the Isle of Wight all the 'babes' are driving the buses these days. Every time I see a new driver it's a pretty young female!
When I was able to travel regularly to work and back (due to location and frequent service) one of the regular drivers had his "Moll" travelling frequently with him on the front platform. Interestingly he was not far off retirement, couldn't work out whether he had found true love late in life or he was being a naughty boy!
On the subject of terms of endearment, the one that makes me seethe is my wife and I being addressed as "you guys"I may be a "guy" but my dearly beloved most certainly is not. It happens in shops,restaurants, bars, hotels....BUT never on a bus!!!!!!
"Some of these anecdotes appear to be from Luxton & District's cemetery gates route"
As a 35+ year veteran, I can assure you that the reality was sometimes far further-fetched than "On the Buses" ever showed!
Round our way, we have a driver who is seldom without at least one, and more often two, or three, ladies crowded onto the front platform. I don't know what peculiar brand of animal magnetism he has but he seems to command the interest of womenfolk of diverse ages and backgrounds, from late teens to early middle age.
The best bit - if you join his bus in the middle part of the day, it makes an extended and untimetabled stop midway through the route while his wife brings him his sandwiches!
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