The Birthday Board on Route 9

I've driven the Route 9 bus for twenty-two years. I know most of my regular riders by name. A few years back, I started keeping a little whiteboard taped beside the fare box. When I find out it's somebody's birthday, I write it on the board.

"Happy Birthday, Mrs. Delgado! 81 today!" "Happy 7th, Tyler!" "Happy Birthday, Big Earl!"

People started telling me their birthdays on purpose. Then they started telling me other people's. A teenage girl once told me it was her grandfather's birthday, and he rode the bus every morning. When he got on and saw his name, he stood there in the aisle blinking. Then the whole bus sang to him.

Now it happens almost every week. People clap. People bring cupcakes. A guy who never talks to anyone stood up last month and led the singing for a woman he'd never met.

My supervisor once asked me to take the board down because it wasn't "standard." My riders signed a petition. It's still there.