Hardly Strictly Old

Emmylou Harris - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Photo by Mark

We found this story via @noratmurphy. It’s a “musing from an 18 year old” after the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concert in Golden Gate Park over the weekend. It’s one of those “this is so San Francisco moments where a series of bizarre little things happened on Muni, and everyone just takes it all in.

So, like, I was on the 71 Muni bus with my date Todd and this old lady gets on and stands in front of me cuz there’s no seats. So like I offered her mine. I said, “Do you want to sit down?” She was like, “I’m not that old.” Hella embarrassed! I had to giggle, I didn’t know what else to do. She was looking at her phone, then she said, “I’m laughing,” like, don’t worry about it.

…after a few stops some seats opened up and the old lady sat across from us. I mean I guess maybe I shouldn’t say old cuz she said she wasn’t but she had like hella gray hair and shit but she was wearing converse high-tops and purple tights and this kinda cool leather cuff with a picture of some chick stitched on it but I don’t know who it was.

Anyway, this kinda skeevy but kinda cool guy gets on and sits next to Todd and immediately starts asking people if they have a lighter. First the lady said no, then me and Todd. And then Todd says, “Oh, wait, I think I do.” He pulls this hella huge emergency kit out of his backpack and digs in and finds a lighter. The guy thanks him and lights up and pulls a puff off a glass pipe, trying to hide it behind Todd’s head! I couldn’t believe what was in this kit. Like, everything. I was dying, pulling everything out, Ace bandages, plastic syringes, everything! This kit weighed 10 pounds.

And then what happened was totally San Francisco and involves a flute of some kind, and a great photo of what transpired. Keep reading the story here.

2 comments

  • fermata

    totally was hoping the “old” lady with grey hair turned out to be Emmylou Harris riding Muni. Otherwise, this story is just eh.

  • The “old lady” was me, actually the author and observer. Just wrote it through the eyes of the teenager. Some seem to have been confused about that. Thanks for the inclusion in your blog.

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