Huckabee and Rommy
On Tuesday nights, after The Best Show on WFMU, I take a local bus home through Jersey City. Since it leaves at 11:30 pm, it's usually not that crowded. Often, I am the only white person on the bus. Last night a couple of non-regulars got on without the proper change for the fare. A call was made for five singles, and even though I knew I didn't have it, I made the effort of looking in my wallet just to show them I wasn't blowing off their plea. No one on the bus had five singles. I guess this didn't sit right with one of them because the next thing I know he's shouting something in my direction. I had already resumed reading my book by this time and was trying to ignore the increasingly persistent outbursts from the front of the bus. As it continued, I finally realized what was being said: "Huckabee! Huckabee!" When I looked up, I noticed that another white guy dressed in business attire was sitting directly in front of me (I recognized him as a fellow commuter from Bayonne). I looked at the guy shouting "Huckabee!", but all I got back was the dead-eye stare of the imbecilic or drug addled (he didn't appear drunk to me). It was hard to tell who exactly he was addressing. Now that he had my attention, he began to vary his routine: "Huckabee!" "Rommy!" "Huckabee!" "Rommy!". Then it dawned on me. Because we were both white and didn't look like bums, we must be rich Republicans. Yeah, that makes sense. And since we were rich white people, it goes without saying that we should have been carrying a huge wad of cash on us and were holding out on him and his buddy. I continued giving him my best "What the fuck is wrong with you? Don't you know how to act in public?" look (I've perfected it over the years), but it didn't have much of an effect. Some sort of verbal response seemed required to get him to stop shouting "Huckabee!" and "Rommy!", so I said I had three singles. His buddy almost went for this, but by this time we had reached their destination and the bus driver, eager to diffuse the situation, quickly waved them off the bus without getting their fare. By the creaky way he disembarked (he moved like an old man even though he appeared to be in his late 30s/early 40s), I still couldn't tell whether he had mental problems or was on drugs. Either way, that's no excuse for being a jerkoff.
posted by BayonneMike at 1:02 PM
8 Comments:
What is this, the 60s? Talk about racism. What would happen if it were a white man doing that to 2 black men on a bus full of whiteys? Obama! Yo Mamma! The rest of the whites on the bus would think he was a complete ass. The guy would HAVE to be a complete ass. Ignorant. Mike, though it seems delusional, perhaps he felt that he had the podium, the power of black behind him. Maybe the bus triggered old resentments. Guy was prolly drunk. drugged. stupid. Anyway, in that position, it made sense to offer the aggressor what you had. Very similiar to the homeless guy I ran into years ago. " Let loose the change!" You just don't know what to expect from these aggressive types. Ant has some extra brass knuckles you could tuck away in your bag if you need em, just incase. ;)
hah. sounds like a good post for "Overheard in Bayonne".
Oddly, the crazed caller left McCain off the rant. Apparently, you didn't appear moderate.
Ha! The look, Mike.
In 2005 during one of my increasingly frequent bouts of unemployment I was forced to work for $7.25/hour at H&R Block in Canarsie, Brooklyn. I ended the season doing 100 forms and got pretty good at it. It was my first daily contact with poor folk since working at Woolworth's as a teenager. I am prefacing the following comments by stating that I voted for Obama last night.
"I gots to get my money," sounds like dialogue written by the worst "seg-a-gationist" but I heard it said to me. I saw people with so many illegitimate kids that they'd have to fan out the social security cards and figure which ones they coud claim before their baby daddy(s) came in and claimed them first. The IRS computer will reject any return with an already-used dependent soc. sec. number, even if the first claim is fraud. They have no way to know. Yeah we had a couple of those.
The boss was a very friendly and proud young black man. He used to confide in me as an older fellow, which I think annoyed the sisters in the storefront. In ref. to the well-known practice of offering Instant Refund loans at usurious rates, one day he said to me, "Brian, sometimes I feel guilty doing this." I said,"Stan, if you weren't doing it, someone else would."
Here's my prayer: Lord, help this fine young family man win in November. We've tried the stupidest kid in class, now let's try the smartest. And, like HG Wells' IN THE DAYS OF THE COMET, see that some real 'change' occurs, such as, a feeling of pride so strong that their neighborhoods become so clean and so safe that I wish I lived there.
Bic,
Well said. I'm with you on that prayer ...
i suppose there are worse things in life than being singled out in the crowd...
"I'm not saying MIke's a terrorist. There is some suspicious activity in his Netflix queue, though." -- Tom on his Associate Producer's potentially treasonous movie renting patterns."
...and you do have a certain distinguishing air...hey, you still running for mayor of Newbridge these days?
I haven't been called Bic in a long time.
Mike, is this your salute to Black History Month? Chris Rock said it figures, they give us the shortest month of the year.
I'm running a black-themed post this week on 1onthetown. You're a radio guy and I think you and your FM crew might enjoy TALK TO ME with Don Cheadle.
Bic Blarnak
I was once walking to a doctors appointment on the upper east side and i did the 'ny-mistake' i stopped short. the guy behind me nearly ran me over. i knew it was my fault, so i apologized. he screamed "kike" in my face. and then some other ramblings. (not that it matters but i could not be further from jewish heritage if i made it up. i think it's good to be addressed wrongly by nuts every once in awhile. it means you're still here.
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