I recently met up with a friend who lives in Pac Heights and we decided to head down to the Ferry Building for some food and shopping. We got on the 1 at the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento and it was already pretty packed. I got on first and ended up pushing my way to the back of the bus where I stood near those groups of chairs facing each other. My friend couldn’t make it as far back and was closer to the rear door.

We were riding along a few blocks, approaching the point when the bus turns left at Gough and then down Clay for the rest of the trip, when all of a sudden a woman started screaming.

“Get out of that seat you piece of shit!” came from this little woman in her forties or fifties.

Immediate silence falls over the bus.

“You heard me,” she continued, “get up so the old man can have a seat. What kind of lazy sack of shit are you? You are the laziest fuck I’ve ever seen.”

We all look toward the supposed “old man” who doesn’t really seem to care if he’s sitting. He looks just as confused as everyone.

Although the dude that was being yelled at looked extremely uncomfortable (with a twinge of nervous smiling) as she continued to berate him for the next five minutes, he never talked back. He just sat there in silence as she kept screaming. The woman finally got off the bus at a stop in Nob Hill. She walked down the back steps, and while the doors were still opened, screamed from the street “I hope a bus runs you over and you DIE.”

Bus door closes. Uncomfortable laugther ensues. Uncontrollable laughter from my friend I keep us connected even though strangers continued to keep us apart.