Now and Then

someone gets on the bus and is a few pence short of their bus fare. The first time this happened was back in London, nearly ten years ago and I was uncooperative. What a mean bastard I must have been in those far of days, refusing travel for 5p. Months later a woman boarded the bus, it was wet, cold, a wind coming in from Siberia, late and in the middle of now where. She only had 76p and the fare was 80p. I patiently pointed out that if I helped everyone who was a few pence short of their fare I would be...........Then I stopped, had a little think for a moment and reconsidered. I was going to say in the poor house but I changed it to "9p down". In 10 months. So I took the 76p and issued the 80p ticket.

Since then I haven't bothered about the odd few pence. Don't try getting on the bus and saying you've only got 5p but could you have a £4.00 day rider. That is pushing your luck just a bit to far over the edge. Actually,it doesn't happen very often. Probably no more than once or twice a year. But on Sunday it happened twice in one day, both ten pence short. So I must be about £3.00 down over the last ten years which represents 0.003% of my income of about £110 000 in the same period. Not a big expenditure in return for that warm glow you get when you help the occasional person out. In fact one of them found 8p in copper which he gave me as he got of the bus so I am only £2.92 down so far. It might get up to £5.00 by the time I retire.

PS. In the first instance mentioned above the poor person did travel, an other passenger donated the 5p.

PPS. The temporary traffic lights in Newton Abbot have gone at last. I feel like I have lost an old friend. I just wish the lights at Long Rd would go away, when they do it will feel like a bad tooth ache has gone. At least in Newton there were always workmen there. At Long Rd you had to get there early in the morning to have any chance of watching some one doing any work in the various holes lying around the place as you sat for hours waiting for the lights to change.