All-Nighters on the Road

It is almost time for the 12:45 shuttle to leave for Mather Tuesday night when somebody waiting outside Currier House notices that something is wrong.

A white truck bearing a "Pat's Towing Company" sign has pulled to a stop in front of the steps. The driver steps out and begins preparing to haul away the bright red bus--and the only hopes of a safe journey home for the seven would be passengers.

Meanwhile, shuttle driver Joseph Freeman '86 relaxes inside Currier Hose, watching a David Letterman rerun. When Letterman finishes his interview with Mr. T. Freeman glances at his watch, and heads out for his final run of the night.

"Things like this usually don' happen on the job." Freeman explains hall an hour later as he finally pulls away from the curb. After a considerable commotion, he has escaped with towing charge and a five dollar ticket for blocking an entrance. It has been the most exciting night in the four months Freeman has been driving the shuttle.

Freeman began the night at 8:45, when he caught a shuttle for the garage, which lies across the river, beyond Harvard Stadium. In a bare cinder block office, he asked Number 67, it seems has as much as any driver could ask for a sound engine and, more important, a working radio. But 67 was already taken so Freeman scuttled for number 32, took the keys, and headed for Lamont.

It isn't long, though before be regrets his decision. The radio begins to lade and Freeman fiddles with the broken knobs on the dashboard. I always forget that 30 has the bum radio, he says. The radio is an important part of the job. The steady beat of WBOS or WBCN relieves the tedium and makes driving almost automatic. When I'm driving in heavy traffic I listen to classical music because it get's really tense behind the wheel." Freeman says I'm from California where the people are a lot more laid back. When you drive around here at rush hour, people are really assholes. It's nice to be in a shuttle where you can use your size to your advantage."

When he first started the job. Freeman was stuck driving Friday afternoons, the least popular shut-but as he gained seniority, he moved to other spots. "The most popular run for drivers is the Currier to Business School route," he says. "That's like a morgue it's se quiet. No one wants to go From the Quad to the Business School."

But Freeman would just as soon deal with the Eassles of a crowded bus, "I like people," he says " I enjoy watching them. You really-don't get to know anyone on this job, but you get to know the faces.

Most of the faces a shuttle driver comes to recognize belong to Harvard students. University policy stipulates that only Harvard affiliates may use the service. But drivers rarely bother to check I D cards "God, you get so many flakes on this bus," Says Freeman. "I think it's because it's Cambridge." One regular is an elderly woman who sometimes engages the drivers in lengthy conversations. "She's really nice. She stays for an hour an hour and a half sometimes. But when you go four blocks out of your way to take her home, you feel like you've done something good."

Freeman recognizes a few other regulars. "This guy gets on the bus every night at midnight." Freeman says as a tall man with a tweed coat and glasses boards the bus near Hilles. "He must be the librarian or something."

In his four hours of driving Freeman makes about four round trips from the Quad, stopping for ten minute breaks each hour. Around 11:30, he takes a longer break of 25 minutes, when he grabs a bite to eat and watches some T.V. or reads. "The job goes by really quickly. Of the four hours, over an hour is break, and on my last run I make it a point to be five minutes early so I can watch David Letterman at Currier."

The towing incident at Currier is not Freeman's firs mishap on the job. Once, he recalls, his battery dies in front of Lamont. The substitute at the garage drove over a new bus while passengers waited or walked home in the rain. And one snowy January night. Freeman skidded and smashed the bus into a parked car. But there were no problems. "Harvard's insured up to the teeth with these things," he says, patting the dashboard.

Joe Freeman nears the end of his final circuit of the night. Having wound through the tortuous Cambridge Streets--from Currier to the Science Center to Lamont to the IAB to Mather House and to Peabody Terrace--he turns another corner and stops at another stop sign. "Sometimes," he says. "I stop and think if I had driven in a straight line I could have gone so far. I could have really gone somewhere."