An ode to the Blue Buses
Sing it with me
We’ve all seen them: Zooming around corners, coming in hot 4 in a row, sitting idly and refusing to let all the freezing North Campus people get on and go home. We’ve all debated whether or not getting hit by one will pay our tuition.
The Blue Buses are as much of a part of UMich as the UGLi or avoiding eye contact with people handing out flyers on the Diag. As a non-Engineering/SMTD/Architecture/Art Student stranded on North, the Blue Buses are a part of every single day of my life. So I took the most famous ode to buses — the preschool jam “The Wheels on the Bus” — and analyzed its lyrics from the point of view of a UMich student instead of a screaming toddler.
The wheels on the bus go round and round
Can you guys stop hanging out and drive us home?
Or they’re all stopped at Baits. Or all the wheels have flown off the road and are nowhere to be seen so you wait at the bus stop for 20 minutes.
The driver on the bus says, ‘Move on back’
The beginning of the 4pm Hunger Games-style wait to get on the bus
Other common phrases include :”get off, there are too many people on this bus”, “please don’t lean against the door” or “how’s it going?” to other bus drivers in passing #busdrivingsquadgoals.
The baby on the bus says, ‘Wahhh’
Go home Bursley-Baits, you’re drunk
There are no babies here at U of M, we’re grown adults. But there are drunk people, and let’s be real, the two are low-key the same. It might not be actual crying, it might be loudly singing (looking at you, Musical Theater kids) or loudly insisting they are not that drunk, thank-you-very-much.
The mommy on the bus says, ‘Shhh’
See above and then look at the person next to them, trying (and ultimately failing) to shut up their highly inebriated friend. They’re the Blue Bus “moms” — bless them.
The people on the bus say, ‘We had a nice ride’
This is Mark. Mark likes riding the bus so much he suggested I write an article about it. Thanks, Mark.
Sometimes the bus ride gets turbulent and it gets really difficult to look cool and collected while trying not to fly forward. But what would we do without the buses? Walk from North to Central? Uber? We’d be lost. Go Blue and go Blue Buses.