For the bus-riding flaneur, like yours truly, the GRTC can be the best entertainment in town for $1.25. People are themselves, it’s a mobile public space and you can wander into some interesting interactions.
Like this morning, as I was heading downtown, there were three young women going back and forth in an almost lyrical manner about ... Forrest Gump. I suppose it’s like auto-tuning, except with living voices. Two of the women turned their favorite lines into music and sang them back and forth and together as a third admonished them for their “foolishness.” We begin with our program already in progress.
First: “I know what love is, Jen-ny!”
First and Second together: “I love you, Jen-ny!
Second: “I can’t wait for it to come back on again.”
First: “He was truly in love with her.”
Second: “But she was bad, she was shooting up and snorting pills. Always at some honky-tonk club.”
First: "My friend had a brother who was like Forrest Gump; he was sort of autistic. Smart but eccentric. 'Will you marry me? I'd make a good husband, Jenny.' "
Second: "You would, Forrest."
First: "But you won't marry me."
Second and First: "You don't want to marry me."
First: “I know I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is."
First and Second sing-songing together: “I love you, Jen-ny.”
Third: "Y'all are just foolish. You need to stop."
First: "And I love Rain Man. He was brilliant."
Second: "He was brilliant."
First: "He had a true gift. He could count anything, the cards, where they were in the deck, how they circulated, where they’d fall. And his brother took him to Las Vegas, which is where I would’ve taken him."
Second: "Except that it was illegal what they did."
First: "I’d earn enough, just enough for my pink limousine. I’m going to get a pink limousine. You think I’m crazy, but it’s going to happen."
Third: "You’re crazy. Both of y'all is crazy. I’m going to win the lottery."
First: "I’m not playing any lottery. In my prayers tonight, I’m going to ask for that gift, and I’m going to Las Vegas and get a pink limousine. I see it coming."
Second: [Laughing] "Yeah, you’ll be in that limousine, and I’ll be riding the bus."
First: "You can ride in my limousine. [Singing now] Jenny, Jenny, I’ll come pick you up in my limousine."
