Every morning in fifth grade, Sam Mencimer climbed onto the 54 Metrobus from Takoma to L’Enfant Plaza on his way to school. By the time he got on, it was packed — standing room only — so he stood behind the yellow line, leaning forward to watch Joy Kenley drive. One day, his curiosity got the best of him. “What’s this button?” “Where do the buses come from?” “Which bus comes out of which garage?” he asked.
“He always had a smile and he always had a question for me every day, and I had an answer,” Kenley says.
Then one day, Kenley had an idea: she offered Mencimer a tour of the Northern Bus Garage. He jumped at the chance. Inside, he climbed into the driver’s seat, pushed some buttons, and got a firsthand look at the buses up close. Kenley showed him how to change the block destination signs and explained that the way to identify a bus wasn’t by its bus number, but by its block number in the lower window—that’s how Mencimer could always spot her bus: N503. She even let him change the block ID to read “SAM.”
“I was having the time of my life,” Mencimer says. “It was one of the coolest things I had ever done, and still probably is one of the coolest things. If I could go back and do the same tour again right now, I would.”…