Mewn bws (in the bus)

I went to town today. Not the small nearby one but the county town about 15 miles away. I took the bus. I may be odd but I love travelling by bus. Sometimes I read but I prefer watching the other passengers and looking out of the window. There's always something to see and even on a single decker you have a view over the hedges, into fields and gardens. You can observe the progress  of the seasons,  the changing aspect of the land, the crops and the animals in the fields, the weather, the clouds. You can eavesdrop on conversations or speculate on people's errands. 

Passengers get on. They're mostly elderly or middle-aged, and/or poor. Some greet each other and chat. Dogs and babies always attract attention. A bunch of young people heading for college are on their phones at the back. One of the older passengers announces he'd seen two ambulances and a helicopter on the sea front early this morning - does anyone know why? A discussion starts, lapsing from English to Welsh and back again.

Since I started using these local bus services 30 years ago they have gradually been whittled away: the frequency has diminished so there are longer gaps in the timetable, routes have been curtailed or cut so some villages have no public transport at all any more. The service runs at a loss and there's less money available to subsidize it.
 I'd like to see more buses (cheaper or free) serving more places, more often.

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I've been using buses all my life. One bus a week serviced our valley on market day, picking up the farmers' wives with their baskets of home-produce to sell (eggs, butter, fruit&veg) and bringing them back with their grocery purchases. When I was 5 and living on a bus route I told my mother she no longer needed to take me to the nursery class I was attending - I could manage on my own.  If I had a playdate with a friend who lived some way away she would put me on the bus and tell the driver where I was to get off. It was the same at my first day at school: she didn't accompany me because there was no way for her to get home. 

At their worst dirty, drafty, smoky, slow, crowded, unreliable but oh so welcome when they arrive and get you where you want to go.
And now I'm old - free!