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Blaze Aid and Ottawa’s Best Bus Driver

Blaze Aid was a multi-bar fundraiser on Saturday for the victims of the fire at Somerset and Booth last month.

Thirty-one people were left homeless, but fortunately nobody died in this fire.

Here are a few pictures of the fire and its aftermath.

Somerset & Booth: during the fire

Somerset & Booth: on fire

chinatown_fire

Do you remember the Thach family, most of whom died in a fire on Somerset Street in 2005? A memorial shrine sprung up for them overnight, and grew over the following weeks. It was right outside the buiding that just burnt down. Apparently Cambodian Buddhists believe that death is a journey, and you must still meet your earthly needs while you’re on that journey. That’s why they leave things for the deceased. Neighbours and friends and passers-by left things like basketballs and money and lights and food and toys and photographs and so on.

Now the backdrop for the shrine has itself been lost to fire.

Somerset & Booth: nowThat corner of Chinatown looks and feels completely different without those buildings.

On the bright side, the people who live in this building, which used to be behind the building that burned down, now have lots of sunlight.

I attended Blaze Aid at Irene’s Pub. While I was there, someone announced that there was another fire burning at Somerset and Bronson. I figured Robin would be on the scene because he seems to have become the unofficial photographer of fires in Chinatown these days.

My friends Mike, Janet and Rebecca all joined me at Blaze Aid, and I ran into lots of people I hadn’t seen for a long time since I hadn’t been to Irene’s for almost a year.I still think of Irene’s as my neighbourhood pub even though I haven’t lived in that neighbourhood for sixteen years and I hardly ever go there anymore. It takes about an hour to walk there, and about an hour and a half to walk back.

But Saturday I didn’t walk back. I called a cab which never came, and then I took two buses.

I’m glad I did, because Weird Al Yankovic was on the #1. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that.

Weird AlWeird Al Yankovic

A young woman got on the #14 at Parkdale and Gladstone. She looked scared, and two men tried to follow her onto the bus. The driver stood up and blocked their access. Then he came back and quietly asked her if they’d hurt her. She said no, but she was clearly upset. He returned to the front and told them to get off the bus. They did. But as they passed by her window, one of them called her a fucking retard. Nice.

I’ve been thinking. You know that worst-bus-route contest over at the Ottawa Citizen? Last time I checked, the #2 was winning, and my #14 was in second place. (Which just goes to show you how bad the #14 is – it can’t even win a race with the #2.)

But anyway, I was thinking, someone should run a contest for the Best Bus Driver in Ottawa. A bus driver can impact your day, for better or worse, by smiling or snarling at you, by doing the little extra things, or by refusing to let your tormenters follow you onto the bus. For people who live alone, often the first human interaction of the day is with the bus driver. A friendly smile and a cheerful “Good morning” can go a long way. I hear there’s a singing bus driver too. Maybe he’s the best bus driver in Ottawa?

I feel like I’m starting to sound like a little Beam of Sunshine now. I better stop before I burst into song. Or flames. Or something.

9 comments to Blaze Aid and Ottawa’s Best Bus Driver

  • Trying to find Ottawa’s best bus driver is a great idea. We’ve brainstormed up a bunch of these and I’ll add it to the list, if it’s OK with you.

    (We’ll get the worst bus route definitively identified, and some response from OC Transpo, as soon as I can stop the provincial election from eating my days alive.)

  • David, by all means, add it to the list!

    By the way, the Worst Bus Route contest seems to be the favourite topic of conversation at #14 bus stops these days.

  • Gillian

    Good for you!. Positive is cool. Maybe we need a top 10.

  • I have heard the singing bus driver. (If there is only one.) He made my day last fall. He was driving the #1 South from Billings Bridge when he launched into John Denver’s Annie’s Song, he sang it all the way through.

    He next sang a French ballad that I didn’t recognize but enjoyed.

    And then we came to my stop and I got off the bus.

    I imagine he’s got enough seniority to pick the routes he wants and that’s why we don’t see him on the 2 or the 14.

  • Malva

    My spouse and daughter used to always get the same driver on the #2 in the morning. He was always very friendly. He got my daughter a doll and some chocolate for Easter. I thought it was very sweet. He got known at our house as The Friendly Bus Driver.

    Over a year later, I was often getting a very friendly driver on the #2 (which I took in the opposite direction and without spouse and child, she had graduated to schoolbus riding) and one morning asked him if he was the friendly driver who’d given my daughter the Easter present. He was and I got to thank him myself.

  • David, I’d love to ride the bus that the singing bus driver drives…I wonder if he has a regular route. But you’re right about how the 14 and the 2 will never get him. (But I had a driver on the 14 who smiled yesterday; that’s a very good start.)

    Malva, that’s an amazing Friendly Bus Driver story. He should definitely be nominated. (But his raises the technical difficulty of such a contest: how would we identify the drivers? Do they have numbers or something?)

  • Arrr, Zoom, there be gold coin ideas in your treasure chest. A treasure for the best driver! And off the gangplank for the worst of them.

  • Heh.. Sometimes I just have to go with my slow herd I have a fresh joke for you) What did one cloned sheep say to the other? I am ewe.

  • hmm interesting site. Are you trying to play with my incredibly soviet I have a nice joke for you people! :) What do cats like to eat for breakfast? Mice Krispies.