That homeless guy who taught me the bus shortcut

There's this older homeless dude named Ray who hangs by the 14th Street stop downtown. One morning I was complaining about traffic to a friend on the phone, and he just cut in and said "take the 42 bus two stops, then walk through the alley behind the old theater." I figured what the hell, so I tried it. Turns out that alley cuts off a full 8 minutes from my usual route, and the 42 bus runs every 4 minutes instead of 12. Now I see Ray most mornings, and I always grab him a coffee from the corner bodega. Anyone else ever gotten a good tip from someone you'd never expect?

3 comments

3 Comments

susan6496d ago

Did you ever ask Ray how he knows all those shortcuts, or does he just kinda drop them like that without explaining? I'm curious if he's lived around there forever or what.

christopher9435d ago

Man, I had a buddy from work who was like that with hiking trails. He'd just casually mention a shortcut through some creek bed and disappear for half an hour. Turned out he grew up on a farm right there and knew every dirt path from his paper route days.

hannah_perry4d ago

Wait, was your buddy from the same farm as Ray or something? That’s wild how people just know a place like the back of their hand from doing something boring as a kid. My uncle had this thing with old logging roads near his cabin-he’d be like “yeah, we can cut through here to save 20 minutes” and then we’d end up in some muddy ditch with a rusted-out truck from the 70s. He never explained where he learned them either, just said he “walked them as a teenager with a bad attitude and a lot of time to kill.”