Yay! A Lovely Story

An antidote to doom and gloom

Dear Friends,

If you’re in need of a smile today, I hope you’ll keep reading—and please share with others. The world could use a little more happiness in our inboxes.

I was scrolling on my phone last night, confronting the doom and gloom that seems to be everywhere, feeling my anger rise—when I came across a story that made me feel something increasingly rare: a moment of pure, unabashed joy. A reminder that there is good in the world, and that it often shows up in the everyday human interactions that give our lives meaning.

This story hit close to home—literally and figuratively. It takes place in my beloved San Francisco and involves public middle schoolers, like my daughter Helena (who’s just finishing seventh grade), and public transportation.

For those who don’t live here, the buses and trolleys of what’s known as MUNI are free for kids under 18. That policy has opened the city to my daughters and their friends in ways I never expected.

All of this is a prelude to a post from MUNI bus driver Mc Allen, better known online as “Mack,” who shared something on Bluesky that I’ve been thinking about ever since.

You might recognize Mack from 2021, when he went viral for his hilarious and epic Twitter breakdown of the MUNI bus fight scene in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Marvel movie starring Simu Liu set in San Francisco. Read about his posts here. (The movie just so happens to be one of Helena’s favorites.) 

But the story Mack posted yesterday was of a very different nature. I reached out and asked if I could share it here. He said yes.

Here it is:

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By Mc Allen — “That Mack”

Willie Brown Middle School is a San Francisco (grades) 6-8 in the Bayview District. For the entire ‘24-‘25 school year, I have been driving the 44 O’Shaughnessy bus that stops there right after school gets out. That trip has been the busiest and most challenging part of my working day.

When I pull up to the stop, 50–70 kids are waiting to pour on board my bus. It’s like a wave breaking against the bus, and it’s scary as they surge towards it before it has fully stopped. For dozens of stops to come, the bus is packed tight with kids, and it gets loud (and a little smelly).

Still, this is the trip I look forward to and will remember for years to come, because these kids have won my heart. They cheer for the bus, they look out for each other, and they bring me joy and satisfaction because they rely on me to take them safely home.

The school year is ending this week, and as summer break approaches, I wanted to give the Willie Brown Middle kids something to let them know how happy I am to have had their company this year. So I wrote them a poem and made them a card. I started giving them out last week.

The poem is a true story about a specific day when the school had to go on lockdown, and how it felt to take them away that November afternoon. Thankfully it all ended well, and no one was hurt.

Today, when I pulled up to the school, the kids greeted me with a gift bag! Inside were notes, a laser-cut portrait of me driving my bus, and a WBMS hoodie, which uses a Muni-style typeface. I can’t describe the emotion I experienced.

I was overwhelmed. It was a little tough to drive after that because I got pretty teary. It seems that the kids shared my note with teachers and administrators at the school too, because they also wrote me very thoughtful notes.

Tomorrow will be my last day driving them home from school this year, and I don’t know when I will see my WBMS kids again after that. I hope, if they happen upon one of my buses in the future, they’ll say hello. They will always be My Kids.

Here is a link to my poem "Run One Seven Four."

— End

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Thank you Mack, and thank you to all the other “helpers” who work each day to bring us around this world, up and down, to and fro, and safely home. 

Note: If you are on Bluesky, please share Mack’s original post. You can also follow me on the site at ‪@elliotkirschner.bsky.social‬.