Tenth Ave at Miller, slowing toward the curb on a gentle downhill. I haven’t seen that face in a while.
“Kuuuurrtt!”
“Heeey!!”
He looks as much like Mr. Cobain as any long-faced, swarthy, tall man can, with one key difference: this Kurt grins with such infectious verve as to make you forget life’s problems ever existed. This guy could make Buster Keaton lose composure. Who else in their late fifties smiles with this level of enthusiasm? The man’s just about bursting!
He steps aboard, takes a stance, and says, as if it’s very important, “are you still announcing?”
“What?”
“Are you still calling out the …”
Announcing the stops, is what he means. He’s asking, am I starting to slack off? Or am I still Nathan, a little bit off the rocker and a little bit not, keepin’ it crazy cool in Club CuckooLand?
“Oh, oh yeah. Definitely!”
“So sweet, man!” he says, unreasonably excited. Fistbumps with sparks flying. “That’s definitely the ‘bring-it’ part of the ride!!!!”
P.S.– That’s my good buddy in the image, one of the best drivers in the entire system. Not everyone announces all the stops and stays happy while driving the 358 for eons– but he does. Such things take massive amounts of character. I learn from standing in the shadows of such giants. Say hi to him if you can! (The photo is from us riding the last trip of the last night of the 358, which was definitely the loudest– and quite possibly the best– bus ride I’ve ever experienced!)
Nathan Vass is an artist, filmmaker, photographer, and author by day, and a Metro bus driver by night, where his community-building work has been showcased on TED, NPR, The Seattle Times, KING 5 and landed him a spot on Seattle Magazine’s 2018 list of the 35 Most Influential People in Seattle. He has shown in over forty photography shows is also the director of nine films, six of which have shown at festivals, and one of which premiered at Henry Art Gallery. His book, The Lines That Make Us, is a Seattle bestseller and 2019 WA State Book Awards finalist.