Madge

So I got on the bus this morning, it was raining last night, and its still quite ugly out. I trundle up the steps and an older lady says "Hi!" very quickly and slightly too loud. The other passengers on the bus are further back and away from ... "Madge", I should have seen the signs, I suppose, but part of my personal social experiment is this, meeting people and experiences on the bus.

So Madge asks me if I've gotten off the St. Louis bus. I say no, I just live in Troy. She begins to tell me about how she sometimes misses 'this' bus, and takes the 14X back home, to what I think was Highland. We ride in silence for a minute at best, when she starts to tell me that my feet are going to freeze off in my sandals. Walmart doesnt have shoes like that now, Madge lets me know, and she was lucky to find the orthopedic old-lady shoes she was wearing.

"Oh yeah?" I was really trying, but I had also realized I had fallen into the crazy-old-lady trap. The only escape was to run away, but I'm just too nice to do that, plus, this would surly make a great entry into the blog I don't update, I realized.

Madge then got out some pictures she had with her. Of course, I didn't have to ask her to share. The first one was a picture of the SIUe 50th birthday cake. I know this not only because the cake very clearly said this, but Madge helpfully told me. Twice. In thirty seconds. It was a really good cake, too. But she doesnt know where all the people went after the cake was cut. Obviously, Madge doesnt realize that students dont care about 50th anniversaries, but they do care about cake.

She contnued to share her ... wonderful pictures. Now, I have to tell you, as a former Certifed Photo Specialist(tm) for a major one hour photo chain, there are two kinds of amatuer photographers; those that can take decent pictures most of the time, and those who should never be let near a camera, much less behind one. Madge, needless to say, fell into the latter.

More of her pictures included going gambling on the boat. Someone there, Madge informed me, had tried to use her first name to claim money. The boat also had 16,000 of her tokens, worth 'at least' fourty-five dollars, and they refused to give it to her. But her and her daughter are going to go again.

Then we got back to cake pictures. It was a really nice looking cake, you know. "The kid helping the cake lady will be able to open his own shop after working with her, he'll know all the secrets!" So Madge knows cakes, too. It turns out Madge is going to give these pictures to the cake people, because her landlords (she has four) won't let her keep too much in her apartment. "If people treated them like they treat you, they'd have them in court!"

Another rider gets on at the Edwardsville station, and seeing that Madge is a crazy old lady, runs to the back on the shuttle bus.

Finally, we arrive at SIU. Madge is off to give her pictures away. I'm off to waste another class not learning anything because we're reviewing.