"Getting there/Baltimore's blessed buses"

8 to 8:40 p.m. Lutherville light rail

My life is in grave danger. First I have to try to walk through the c.c. parking lot without getting robbed or hit by a car. At the light rail there are 4 to 5 females and 1 male at the #8 bench/shelter. It's certain they'll harrass me if I go and try to get a seat. I sit on the ground a few yars away. I feel like an ousted jr. high girl. It's an awful feeling...ousted and in grave danger both at the same time.

A car drivers toward me and if she makes a mistake she'll run me over. The girls at the shelter are loudly discussing a knife fight that they were in. They keep laughing and saying: "she do this she do that" ( are they talking about me? I don't dare make eye contact)

It's 8:30 p.m. ish and I go sit on the cement base of the lamp post. $ boys of about 16 come up behind me and are very loud. They 1/2 surround my pole, yelling and pushing each other. I'm wondering if they'll kill me or rob me? One of the boys said something about me "she doing like this" They all laughed. One of them kicks the pole. Yes, I am terrified and I get up and start pacing.

Once on the bus I sit near but not in the "handicapped" seats. It's about 45 or 50 degrees on the bus, I open a window for warmth. Another woman immediately closes it.

About 3 miles into the trip something happens to the 2 women in the handicapped seats that has always been my greatest fear. A 300 lb. mentally retarded man with a large soda falls into their laps and drenches their clothes with his 7-up. He says: "Oh Well" then gets off the bus.

I immediately tell the women that I have napkins for them. The bus driver yelled back: I ALREADY OFFERED Y'ALL NAPKINS!

Remarkably it's 9 p.m., I'm home, and have apparently survived yet another experience on Baltimore's "blessed" buses!