Meet anyone interesting on your way to work? This collection of engaging and poignant vignettes offers unexpected glimpses of San Francisco Bay Area “casual commuters” being themselves as they are zippered into their daily commute.
These thoughtful, entertaining character sketches are authentic microcosms of life, reflecting the drama, silliness, fun, sensuality and pathos at the brief intersections of our shared journey in Casual Carpools, on buses and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).
You may see yourself or someone you know in these chance encounters and realize that we are all in the same boat, er, car!
"The Casual Commuter,” presents 35 character sketches of Bay Area commuters on their daily odyssey between home to work. The profiles are authentic microcosms of life, reflecting the drama, silliness, fun, sensuality and pathos of chance encounters in carpools, on buses and on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). We see ourselves through these stories and realize that although we are separate, we are inter-connected."
The stories are presented in four chapters: ‘Carpool Capers’, ‘Foibles & Fancies’, ‘Passenger Portraits’, and ‘Intriguing Interiors.’ An excerpt from separate original poems introduces and anticipates each chapter’s theme. Two appendices present a brief history of the casual carpool in the Bay Area, as well as the informal rules of
transit etiquette.
Excerpt
MIS-QUE
The Monday morning casual carpoolers are waiting. They stare blankly into the awakening day, or are absorbed in a half-read book from the weekend. Some scan the headlines of the morning newspaper taken for a quarter from the nearby stand.
An unfamiliar car arrives, traveling parallel to the assembling line of hopeful commuters on the sidewalk. With surety of purpose, the car comes to a full stop at the front of the lengthening line. With practiced gesture, a would-be passenger steps from the curb, reaching for the passenger-side door handle just as the car rolls to a stop, with engine idling.
The driver takes a second look at the person entering his car. Pushing his arm defensively toward the intruder, his voice raises in alarm, ‘What are you doing?!’
The startled carpooler continues to open the door, gazing in amazement, 'Getting in your car!'
‘Why?' the driver demands!
Frozen at the entry to a ride across the Bay Bridge, the carpooler asks in reply, ‘Aren't you going to San Francisco?'
‘No!' Exclaims the driver, 'I just stopped here to get the morning paper.'
Professional Reviews
Today in Montclair, 94611
"'The Casual Commuter' offers an amusing and literate perspective of Oakland’s myriad characters, who just happen to commute. The collection of vignettes resonate on first read, and seem even better when you return to them a second or third time."
– Debby Richman, Editor, MontclairOak
Commuting Memories
“What a great read! She nailed it! I totally loved the richness of the color throughout. And the Appendix is inspired. 'The Casual Commuter' brought back all my memories of those interesting and funny trips to San Francisco."
Maureen Slavin, Account Executive
Carpool Etiquette
"As a casual carpool driver, I found “The Casual Commuter” a satisfying romp through the characters we often meet in the daily casual ride to 'the City.' Semones covers the nuances of carpool etiquette and makes us laugh and shake our heads with wonder at her thoughtful, compassionate glimpses of the people behind the paper or earphones in our cars. The more stories I read, the more I wondered which character I was most like and the more I felt an overwhelming desire to wash my car before Monday morning rolls around again!" Marady Hill, Communications Director
