THE LOVE BUS commandeered by the SamTrans Bus Driver of the Year in Post Earthquake Times..........read on.....

Back in 1989, because of the earthquake, I stopped riding Bart in favor of SamTrans for my 5 day a week commute to San Francisco from the Peninsula.

My first day on the 19F Express, I saw my future husband whom I referred to for months as the "BUS MAN". Love at first sight. For months, we caught each others eye, but I would not allow myself to sit by him (I had a fiance afterall).

One day, the only seat available was next to him, so I had to take it! We became friends with each other and with a group of people around us.

One day I brought onto the bus, photographs of my oil paintings and he brought copies of a a few of his poems. I picked a poem. He picked a painting. I painted about the poem. He wrote about the painting. our first "date", we traded our artwork. It was very exciting and we of course fell in love.

We broke up with our other relationships (which were failing anyway), got engaged and invited our bus driver to the wedding (His name was Gary and he won the SamTrans Bus Driver of the Year Award that year!) He was great. I used to always draw pictures for him of the people on the bus . He may still have them and I run into him time to time. I keep his picture in our wedding album.

One other couple we met on that same bus also got married. We ran into them again when it turns out they had a son the same year as us and they are now in the same Kindergarten class!!! Small World. Great Bus. I always refer to the 19f as the Love Bus. Lots of folks made friends and spouses on that bus. They had a Friday night get together every week at El Rancho in Millbrae!

12 Years ago, My boyfriend Oly and I were taking an evening bus home from one of the local malls. He hadn't proposed to me yet and I was getting anxious. I looked up and saw a sign in the bus with a drawing of a wedding couple and it said "Unless you're standing in the aisle to get married, please sit down" (or something close to that). The sun was setting, the sky was a beautiful pink-orange, and that advertisement instantly inspired me to do something completely spontaneous. I turned to him and gave some romantic speech and asked him to marry me. I guess I took him totally by surprise because his jaw dropped and he just stared at me. At that moment I was totally unnerved and jokingly said, "You better say yes!" He then stood up and in front of the entire bus (which was packed with teenagers) and exclaimed very loudly my proposal to everyone and asked the audience what he should say. They all cheered and yelled "Go for it!". By this time I had slinked onto the floor from embarrassment but after Oly said "yes" the entire bus cheered for us to kiss. So we did. The bus driver then announced our names and engagement on the intercom since he said this was the first time he had ever witnessed an engagement on the bus. He then jokingly announced that everyone on the bus would be getting an invitation to our wedding. It was the best bus ride ever and it's a story that we tell time and again. Everyone gets a kick out of it. Thanks SamTrans, for the fond memories. Happily married 11 years.

Several years ago, when I was planning to go to London for the first time, in December, someone said it would really be cold and I should have scarves and gloves. This was in February. I hadn't knitted for ages, but by the time I went to London, I had made two beautiful scarves, a very long scarf-hood combination complete with jaunty tassel, and two pairs of gloves. I had never made gloves before, but I even knitted the fingers -- all on the bus! On one trip, I got into conversation with a man who, it turned out, had been in prison. He said he was reminded of his childhood by my knitting and it gave him more courage to get his life back together. When I got off the bus, I said, "God bless you, Jim." Tears came to his eyes. And whenever I think about him, I pray he is doing okay.