M-3

The plan was to take the M-3 bus to Penn North then hop on the 21. Growing up I knew everything about the bus system here. I could get everywhere and back on a transfer, I would take the most convoluted way home from school. As I said I liked the way the bus would wander rather than get someplace. I had never taken the 21 however.
An inner city bus it was one that stays in realm of the poor but starts around the corner from my Grandmother’s house in Sandtown – three murders so far this year - and ends up by where my mother was born now “safe” due to the expansion of Johns Hopkins’s Medical Campus. It is now a car park.

The M-3 isn’t much while it started in a semi suburban area, it soon hits the North West Balamer that everyone knows – blighted, empty houses, greasy take outs, closed corner shops. If a façade doesn’t have bars it is grated.

There were people making the best of it sitting on their porches in the 35 degree heat beside an abandoned building – must admit at least there were people out. In the air conditioned suburban utopia where the bus starts fronts of houses are deserted.

All changed when I saw the number 5 awaiting in Mondawmin. I had never been to Cedonia; this would take me past my other Grandmother’s house and the WMCA where they tried to teach me to swim. I could see if it were safe enough to go back one day and make snaps – along Droodle Avenue.

Another advantage of taking buses in Balamer is there is a good chance that the ride will be free. It seems that the MTA cannot fathom the upkeep of fair boxes and most – from bus to Metro to Light Rail are broken. In my case I usually cannot have a free outing for one of the four or five modes that I use will have one fare box that functions but so far this evening, I was on my second bus and so far so good.

I had started out too late. I had started out unprepared, on the 5 it started to downpour. People entering the bus looked like losers in a wet t-shirt contest. It was also darkening quickly so that not only could I not see outside the window all that well but when I did get down there would be no light left for snaps.

Had I had been in a more frantic mood and was not using the buses as moments of peace, I would have been pissed when the new 5 was not the old 5, when it started to tour the area south of the reservoir and head down Park Avenue like the old 28/37. But I was in mood to look and again this was an area I used to know and here I was with the surprise of seeing an area that I used to pass through.

Determined that the area around my Grandmother’s house was safe enough – but wondered how people would react with me photographing her marble steps.

By now it was too dark to do anything and I was afraid that I would be caught out in the rain so off at the Lexington Market now back to a blighted area where fresh fruits and vegs, along with seafood and
meats were replaced by fried chicken joints, renamed 7-elevans and bad Chinese restaurants.

Got down thinking of taking the Metro west (really north) back but as the rain had slowed decided to wander a bit. Down Howard Street along Baltimore hugging the Metro route in case of another downpour. Then the alleys east of Calvert.

All the grease along Eutaw Street had me hankering for some. Headed for the Inner Harbour and some fries remembering full well that once bought I would have to eat them as food and drink are not allowed on the MTA – even though there are vending machines in the stations. Having ordered them from a chain, remembered the person on his stoop in Federal Hill eating proper chips out of newsprint – kicked myself for forgetting to go there.

Regretted the chips – too greasy didn’t put enough vinegar on them and they stared at me blankly when I asked for malt vinegar. Having to eat all of this, headed past a vendor selling seafood awaiting the end of the Orioles game at the yards, teens heading over to the power point, the peace of the block at night, one homeless chap reading philosophy as I doubled back along Lombard Street before finally have to pay on the Metro to head back to Milford Mill, wondering how long I would have to wait for the M-3 closing the loop.