Wear a face mask on the bus! – Hayley Matthews

Hayley Matthews’ encounter with an elderly man on a bus leaves her dismayed at younger generations’ lack of respect for the lockdown rules, like wearing a face mask on public transport.

Face masks are mandatory on public transport, but how do you make people comply? (Picture: SNS)

During the week we ventured down to the Co-op so I could use the post office that’s tucked away at the back of the supermarket in Portobello.

I was looking to post some parcels and walk off some steam as I was in a terrible mood – we’d all fallen out several times that day so off we went for a walk. Whilst going round I picked up a few face masks so that we could take the bus home because, well, closed public toilets + a weak bladder = bus home in a rush. I’d heard it was now mandatory to wear a mask on the bus and I didn’t fancy being rejected by Lothian’s finest for not having a cover on my coupon.

As we got on the bus I saw an elderly man appear from behind the bus stop and walk to get on the bus. I apologised as I hadn’t seen him and as we all got on the bus and we then struck up conversation.

My first observation about wearing a mask on a bus? It’s really is hard to have a conversation at a distance, with a mask on. But I wanted to hear this gentleman’s story as he was interesting.

We started talking about how the age of chivalry is not dead as he’d insisted I get on the bus with the boys before him, saying “always women and children first”, but he said he’d stopped holding doors open for people, mainly because they just “swan past”.

We then got on to the discussion of how he was in his late-70s and had seen a lot of change in the world since World War II. I asked him which he found scarier – the war or the pandemic. He said straight off: “This is much scarier. There was only bombing in certain countries but this virus is everywhere!” Wow, that took me by surprise.

Then we chatted about how people then handled rationing well, pulled up their knickers and just got on with it, while many of the current generation moan at everything and seem to show a lack of respect despite the severity of the crisis that we’re all facing.

As we discussed the lack of rule-following in society at the moment (think teenagers ignoring social distancing, people not taking the restrictions seriously and the Meadows situation) just as we were talking right in front of us stood a woman and three kids, waiting to get off the bus with not one of them wearing a mask. But wait, don’t we need one to get on the bus? Then just as they were getting off a young guy got on with no mask and the driver didn’t bat an eye.

The trouble is, there is no policing of the mask-wearing on public transport and I bet the drivers are sick of the abuse they get already, never mind having to deal with the non-mask wearers. The old guy gave me a look as if to say “see, this is what I’m talking about” and it worries me. His parting words were how the world has changed so much but there was nothing he could do about it and I felt his sorrow. He genuinely looked upset that so many people nowadays just don’t seem to care. So come on, put your masks on when you’re on the bus. Do it for those who are too long in the tooth to be able to challenge you on your ignorance and save the bus drivers the hassle of a fall-out.

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