The Bus Ride. As I walked home from school that cool December day, I became more and more excited. My Aunt was taking me on the bus to go uptown to see Elvis’ new movie Blue Hawaii. I had never ridden on a bus and it was also the first time I was going to the theatre to see a movie. Quite frankly, I was a bit nervous but I didn’t want my Aunt to know that. She was the biggest Elvis fan in the world. She had all of his records and pictures of him on the wall of her bedroom at my Granny’s house. When I would visit she was always playing his records and reading magazine stories about him. She would get so excited and jump up on the bed and sometimes even scream. I thought she was funny and Granny was always telling her to turn down the record player.
She walked to my house and told Mom that the movie started at 4:30pm and that we should be home no later than 7:00pm. We walked down a couple of streets to the bus stop. My Aunt rode the bus everywhere, even sometimes to Church. We were the only ones waiting and I asked her how much it costs. “Don’t worry about that, I have you covered. This is my treat.” She was the most gentle and caring person that I knew. I never heard her say a bad word about anyone or anything.
The big bus pulled up and the doors opened. You could smell the nasty exhaust fumes. “Step up there, you can do it,” she encouraged me. I stepped up from the curb and tentatively walked up the steps with my Aunt holding my hand from behind. I thought that the bus driver looked very shipshape in his uniform and cap. He said hello to me and then to my Aunt as she put some coins in the machine to pay for our ride. We started walking down the aisle with dark red seats on each side of the bus. The bus had many people riding in it and I really didn’t know anyone. Some of them said hello and made me feel safe. My Aunt pointed to one of the seats. “Sit next to the window so you can see outside.”
I jerked backward as the bus started and she grabbed my hand and laughed. The radio came over the bus speakers and I could hear Jimmy Dean singing “Big Bad John.” My Dad loved that song. Every so often, the bus would slow down and stop and the bus driver would announce to everyone where they were. Sometimes people would reach up and pull down a string so the bus driver would know that he needed to let them off as soon as possible.
We finally arrived at our stop and bus driver said good bye and that he would see us again. There was a lot of traffic on the city streets and it made me feel uncomfortable. My Aunt grabbed my hand and we walked up the sidewalk to the theatre. She bought the tickets from a lady in the booth and we went in. The lobby was covered with a red carpet and the smell of popcorn overwhelmed everything. She bought me a root beer and a big bag of hot popcorn. I love popcorn. We walked into the theatre which was somewhat dark and there was a cartoon, Bugs Bunny, showing on the big screen. Except for the drive inn theatre, this was the biggest screen I had ever seen. We found two seats in the middle of the theatre and sat down. In a few minutes, the theatre got darker and the movie began.
I don’t remember much about the movie except that my Aunt tried to turn her head so I wouldn’t see her cry when Elvis sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Many years later I took my girlfriend to see Elvis in concert. She also cried when he sang, “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” My Aunt and I walked out of the theatre and noticed that it had gotten colder. She made sure my jacket was buttoned up. We started walking back toward the bus stop. I noticed many people were Christmas shopping. We stopped into the record shop and she bought two 45s of “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” “Here you go, one of these is yours. You can play it on your Mom’s record player.”
"I can't wait!" I told her.
We got back on the bus. This time I knew wat to do and was very sure of myself when I stepped up toward the bus driver. On the way home we talked about the movie and how much we’d like to go to Hawaii especially since it was so cold here. We finally got home and Mom asked if I had a good time. I said I loved it and that one day I wanted to go to Hawaii. She and my Aunt laughed. My Aunt could always be relied upon to take me to see the newest Elvis movie. It was our special time together.
Just the other day, I was told that my Aunt had passed away. I pulled out that old, scratched 45 of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and played it on my record player as I cried.
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