Stan was the man, but Gino is another hero of the Rutgers bus system

Unfortunately for me, and the other members of my class, I was never able to experience an insightful and inspiring speech from none other than Stan the LX bus driver. I can only go based off of the stories that others tell me, but apparently Stan was someone who truly cared about everyone who stepped on that bus, and made it a point to make sure they knew that.

Now, again, I wasn’t really able to experience a pep talk from Stan, but I was able to see Gino in action.

Gino switches bus routes all the time, but I know that a few of the freshman who lived over on Livingston campus last year remember him driving us to College Ave most weekends, and always seemed to brighten our spirits, if the liquid courage of $10 vodka hadn’t done that for us already.

For those who don’t know Gino, or for those who do but haven’t been able to see him action, here’s a story that really shows what an amazing bus driver, or person for that matter, he really is.

It was a rather disappointing Tequila Tuesday in the beginning of December of my freshman year at Rutgers, and my roommate and I were ready to pack it up and grab a bus since we’d been turned down by probably every frat at Rutgers.

We checked the Rutgers app, realized there’s an LX coming in 10 minutes, and sprinted our asses off to the student center, making it within seconds. The first thing that tells you Gino was at least a decent human being is that the bus doors were closed for approximately four seconds, but he still opened them up for us, something most bus drivers are notorious for not doing. We get on the bus, give a quick hello to Gino, as we’re on this bus every weekend at 1 a.m, and head to the back to take our seats.

My roommate and I are having a conversation about how shitty the night had just gone, as the bus starts moving. We get down to Scott Hall, and the doors open up. No one gets on the bus, but we are still not continuing the route. We both look up to see Gino is talking to someone outside saying, “Hey, you coming?” Me and my roommate whip our heads to the window to see who it is, and all we see is a homeless man, sleeping on the bench at the bus stop, noticeably with not much on relative to the attire you’d normally expect on a freezing December night.

As we look out the window, confused at what is going on, we see Gino get up out of his seat, and walk over to the man. He gives him a little shove, and helps him get up and on to the bus. The man hops on the bus and sits in the back, falling asleep not bothering a soul.

We keep driving as my roommate and I give each other a look of confusion.A few stops later, the homeless man ends up getting off the bus, going into a building to keep warm.

We have so many questions obviously, and not a lot of time before our stop, so we make our way towards the front of the bus to sit down. We exchange a look of agreeableness and one of us asks, “Hey Gino, what was that all about?”

Gino takes a look back, just noticing us, and says, “Oh what? That guy? Oh, he’s just a nice dude I talk to sometimes around here. I feel bad, ya know, it’s not really a big deal to help him out a little bit and bring him on the bus to get some warmth. He doesn’t bother anyone, so why not?”

Long story short, Gino tells us all about how it’s really not a big deal to do something nice for someone like that.

Needless to say, me and my roommate got to our dorm that night, wrapped ourselves in our warm comforters our parents bought us, in this dorm room at an expensive college, with a full stomach, and had an unusual appreciation for all of that. We have our parents, we have professors, we have mentors, and all other types of people from different walks of life who want to share their wisdom with us, rightfully so, but who knew you could feel such a way about a bus driver simply letting a guy on the bus.

Gino taught us a lot that night without us even knowing it, I know he taught me more than most professors at this school. He’s just a regular guy, doing a very easy thing that doesn’t take a lot for him to do, but it meant a few minutes of warmth for someone who has less than him. He probably doesn’t even remember this particular night, but we do. For this reason, I hope everyone gets to experience something like this, and maybe it will be with someone like Gino.

I know everyone who knew him misses Stan very much, but there’s other good people out there taking his place. So, thanks Gino, for being a regular dude, who did a really, really cool thing one night, and for being an overall cool mother fucker.