By Ann von Dehsen, November 14, 2019 — On Yom Kippur last month, I happened to get on the Route 40 bus. Immediately, an older woman, already seated, took my hand and invited me to sit down next to her. She then asked if she could sing to me and I said, “Sure.” She sang what would become a rather long song in a language and cadence that I assumed to be Hebrew. When she finished, about 12 blocks later, I said “that was beautiful — was that in Hebrew and can you translate any of it?” She looked a little shocked and disappointed and said, “Oy vey, aren’t you Jewish?!” I said, “No, I’m not but I really enjoyed your song anyway,” to which she replied, as she got off the bus, “Well, I guess that’s ok then.”
About a week later, as I waited at the bus stop a very tiny woman joined me, pushing her shopping cart. Immediately she began her story. “I woke up this beautiful morning and felt like having cornflakes, bananas, and milk for breakfast but I had no bananas. I’m 85 years old but thought, it was a nice day for a walk and walked a mile to the Acme only to discover they were out of bananas. In my 85 years, I’ve never walked into a market and there were no bananas!!” By now we’re getting on the bus as she continues, “You know, it reminds me of the old song ‘Yes, We Have No Bananas’” and started to sing it. A man on the bus joined in and soon my new 85-year-old friend was now enjoying her morning.
Finally, just this week I was on Bus 40 at rush hour standing in the aisle with many other seniors. On the seats designated to seniors sat 3 young men, possibly in their 20s. Suddenly, the woman standing next to me approached them and said, “Excuse me, but I’ve noticed that the 3 of you are obviously not seniors, nor do you appear to have any physical disabilities, and you’re obviously not pregnant. So please make your mamas proud, get up, and give your seats to us seniors, for it is one of the few perks of being a senior.” They got up, 3 of us sat down and people sitting nearby applauded. As I sat there I realized people take our “senior seats” simply because we let them and maybe it’s time to speak up in a gentle way.
