I used to go to Uni in Red Deer and my Girlfriend at the time lived in Edmonton. Having no car, every couple of weekends I would take the Grayhound to to Greaser Ville.
One time, these two rig pig type dudes were randomly seated together in the seat behind me. They proceeded to get very drunk and get to know one another.
The one guy says that he has to take the bus because he lost his license. He was kicked out of a club one night, and decided to come back and get revenge on the bouncer with one of these decorative samurai swards he had in his trunk. The police saw him fumbling around in his car wasted looking for this sward and took his license.
I thought to myself, thats a crazy story... Fast forward an hour and we are just entering the city. This guy starts to loudly complain that he needs a cigarette.
Keep in mind i am the see right Infront of him.
another 10 minutes pass, and he starts muttering to his new friend that he is going to ####ing kill somebody if he doesn't get to smoke soon.
Lets just say every red light from there on out felt like a nightmare.
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I was an Engineering student, not looking forward to a year of 6 courses in each term, so I decided to take a summer evening class - Psych 201. Should be a gimme and not interfere with my summer too much.
I went with my family to my grandparents place on Shuswap lake during that course, but didn't quite thread the needle, as the final ended up being scheduled a couple days before we were going to drive home.
In order to still go to the lake, I figured I'd take the greyhound back for my final. To squeeze absolutely as much lake time as possible, I booked the 10pm bus from Salmon Arm to Calgary. I figured it would be pretty quiet, and I could just sleep the whole trip and get a full day at the lake.
I hop on the bus, and there is only one seat left, next to a girl who was not exactly in peak physical condition. As the 11 hour bus ride progressed, gravity took over and she ended up taking up more and more of my seat. I tried to slump sideways into the aisle a bit, but every time someone needed by I'd have to move. I ended up awake all night.
Fast forward to the final - I fell asleep during the test. Luckily at some point I knocked my pen on the floor and woke up with enough time to finish most of the test, but my "gimme" course ended up putting a big dent in my GPA.
I took the Loser Cruiser from Calgary to Winnipeg while in University around 1989/90. 18 hours and several stops. Needless to say I was wide awake the entire time, and kept changing my mind..
"Should I sit upfront, so it's an easy escape.. but risk being attacked from behind, or sit in the back to see it coming, but have no option to escape and be stuck near the disgusting bathroom".
I once took a bus from Detroit to New Orleans. Took like 35 hours with layovers, would not recommend.
I'm going to throw tons in here in no time, but I once took the Dirty Dawg from Calgary to Windsor ON to visit a buddy at U of W.
If there had been a gun with one bullet I'd have given it serious consideration. That must have been the single worst travel experience of my entire life with the Calgary to Vancouver trip a close second.
Oh! But I did learn the most obnoxious thing one can do on a long road trip on a Bus with 55 strangers!
Yeah. Bring on a bucket of KFC.
Just a big ol' Bucket that you're going to gradually chow through during our seemingly endless voyage.
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If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
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One of the reasons I wanted this thread is because, after my Father passed away and after Greyhound went under I have this weird Love/Hate thing going on.
On the one hand I have to love/respect Greyhound as it provided my family with a fairly decent middle-class upbringing.
Furthermore, I respect the Hound as a part of Canada. This is a big goddamned place and I think the Hound played a huge part in our history of helping people get around and travel this Country at a time when airfare was simply not an option for a large percentage of people.
However, this company also treated my father and I like crap...it was an insanely dangerous place to work and didnt care one bit about anything other than the Hound.
Actually taking the Greyhound? Oh I've done it. Has anyone ever enjoyed a trip on the ol' Dirty Dawg?
No. You take it because it is 'The Conveyance of Last Resort.'
It had the most insane Union I've ever worked for because there was this madcap policy of 'hiring from within.'
"The Union head? That guy used to drive a forklift. You know what he knows about running Unions? Nothing. Absolutely Nothing."
So decisions were just completely baffling, nothing made sense.
I hated that place. It was the worst job I ever had. But man was it a wild place.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
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They closed the downtown Depot so all maintenance had to be done at the 9th Ave Station.
Well...when you do something like that, there are consequences and those consequences are...there are a lot of Buses running in a fairly enclosed space.
To this day the scent of Diesel makes me sick. I'd be spitting on the floor and it'd be black.
So one day someone from the Union called Occupational Health and Safety.
They showed up and had a fancy meter that measured the Air Quality and surprise, surprise it turned out to be atrocious. Like we were worse off than if we were living in a goddamned coal mine.
Anyways they tell Greyhound: "You need this many fans moving this many CFMs of air or we're going to have to shut you down."
To which...Greyhound directed them to some store-room nobody had ever seen before or knew about in which there were the requisite number of fans to move the requisite amount of air.
Still in the boxes they were purchased in.
So. OHSA guy signs off, says Greyhound is Compliant and we never heard from him or anything about it ever again. Back to huffing Diesel exhaust.
That store-room was never unlocked again. But Greyhound 'technically' had the required equipment, but for some reason couldn't be compelled to actually be required to use it.
And that was the end of it. Never again was the topic ever addressed.
There is a mysterious store-room with fans in it. Its probably still there.
That Depot should be turned into a museum or maybe some 'Locked Room Adventure.'
I worked there for years and I guarantee you there are places I've never seen.
Like that store-room? I remember thinking "where the hell did this place come from??"
Oh Greyhound.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
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If there was any way to swing it, I want to get a few of those little hard-plastic seats from the depot with the little coin-operated TVs bolted to it and put them up in my office.
That being said! If anyone has Greyhound memorabilia dont throw it out!!
Ask me, I'll have a look. I'm starting a little memorabilia thing in my office. I'll show some pictures later.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
Used to catch Greyhounds from Lethbridge to Calgary and back all the time in university. I remember the downtown Lethbridge station (absolutely nothing like Calgary's) which was walking distance from my apartment across from the Spudnut shop on 5th Ave
One morning I arrived at the station early in the morning, and there was a guy and a woman and some commotion about their luggage which was something wrapped in a tarp and tied with bungee cords. I don't think they were allowed to stow it, and there was definitely some yelling and drama, but I wondered what that was for some time after.
Used to catch Greyhounds from Lethbridge to Calgary and back all the time in university. I remember the downtown Lethbridge station (absolutely nothing like Calgary's) which was walking distance from my apartment across from the Spudnut shop on 5th Ave
One morning I arrived at the station early in the morning, and there was a guy and a woman and some commotion about their luggage which was something wrapped in a tarp and tied with bungee cords. I don't think they were allowed to stow it, and there was definitely some yelling and drama, but I wondered what that was for some time after.
We had a very, very offensive term in the lanes for that.
Look...it was a long time ago, it was a very rough job, people have matured and grown mentally and employees get grumpy on the job so lots of stuff you just slough off, it wasn't nice, it wasn't 'politically correct' but if you see it often enough people get jaded.
But yeah.
Greyhound was all about 'Creative Luggage Solutions.'
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
And the other thing as well...a little bit about my circumstances.
So...Greyhound was like the Oil-Rigger's Retirement Home.
When people got done on the patch they'd work for the Hound.
However, I was the outlier. I worked there because I could. It was close to University so literally on my way to and from school and it paid obscenely well for unskilled manual labour.
I just never realized how much attention I'd have to pay to not getting hurt.
But I'm just there to pay my tuition. I'm not there for the long-haul.
I remember one day we had to do WHMIS testing? This was a first for Greyhound.
I remember thinking: "Haven't you been in business for a really long time? How is 'now' the first time you're making dock-loaders take WHMIS training?"
Well. It was.
And I will never forget the Supervisor, the GM of the Depot and the Union Head coming to congratulate me on my test scores!
I. Was. Stunned.
"Congratulations! You got a 100% on your WHMIS tests! We're really proud of you!"
Uhm. Thanks?
That test was 'Open Book.' You could literally look up the answers.
The fact that some people didn't get 100% is significantly more concerning.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
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Locked inside a depressing Greyhound depot
