March 18 is Transit Driver Appreciation Day, so it’s maybe a good time to tell a story about a unique place to catch a bus.
In Scotland’s Shetland Islands, in the North Sea, there’s an island called Unst. It’s actually the Shetland Islands’ northernmost inhabited island.
It has a 16th century castle, Viking ruins and a famous nature reserve, as well as some 600 residents who live, work and go to school.
Back in 1996, the village council in Baltasound decided to take down a bus shelter, which got the attention of a 7 year old called Bobby Macaulay.
He wrote to the newspaper and said, my friends and I use this shelter when we’re waiting for the school bus, could you please put a new one back up?
And a new shelter did go up where the old one had been. But that wasn’t all.
Someone (it’s not clear who) started decorating the bus shelter.
They added a table and a sofa for Bobby and the other bus riders to use.
Later, the bus shelter got its own TV, its own carpet, and a heater for cold days.
Then, a guestbook for all the tourists who wanted to see this unusual bus stop.
It became a local tradition to make the shelter super comfortable and super colorful.
For years, residents would decorate the shelter around a theme: space, underwater, the World Cup, things like that.
It’s even had its own pet hamsters from time to time!
I mean, I wouldn’t say no to a bus stop that’s all fancy and colorful and everybody’s proud of, would you?
Or, if you prefer stories about driving, here’s one: the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana, is now hosting an exhibit called “Disco Decade Rides: Cars of the 1970s.”
That’s a time when cars were cars. Actually, back then, a lot of cars were the size of like three cars.
Waiting in Style (Futility Closet)
Website for Unst bus shelter is ‘essential reading for future generations’ (Shetland Times)
Disco Decade Rides: Cars of the 1970s (Studebaker National Museum)
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Bus shelter photo by Peter Stenzel via Flickr/Creative Commons