The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Riding the roads
Resident finds adventure touring the state on a CT Transit bus
When Dennis DeMartin wants to have a good time or a big adventure, he hops aboard a CT Transit bus.
DeMartin, who does not own or drive a car because of health issues, is more than a rider; he is an outspoken advocate for using those often-maligned buses. On the dedication page of his self-published guide book, “Riding New Haven Buses,” DeMartin cited “all the friends I made while riding all the buses on the New Haven bus lines.”
“As I rode all the buses that connected to the New Haven Green and all around the New Haven area, I realized that many people in this area are also interested in how to connect to many destinations,” he added.
For the past three years, DeMartin, who lives in the Bella Vista complex that houses many senior citizens, has also written a bus rider’s column for “The Bella Vista Reporter.” His writings are full of information about bus routes and enthusiastic accounts of his personal experiences.
I thought it would be interesting to ride around on a couple of those buses with DeMartin and, of course, he eagerly signed on to my proposal.
“I take buses every day,” he told me when I called him to set up our outing. “I ride four to six buses daily because I do transfers from the New Haven Green to Milford or Seymour or Hamden or New London.”
Last Wednesday afternoon, after I met DeMartin in the lobby of his Bella Vista building, I noticed everybody seems to know him there. “Hey Santa!” a woman called out. “How’s your beard coming?”
DeMartin explained to me the Santa reference. “I’m growing my beard to get ready for playing Santa Claus for foster kids and kids of Bella Vista grandparents.” He does this every year during the holiday season.
There were a lot of people sitting in that lobby and, quite unlike DeMartin, clearly they had no particular place to go. When we walked outside, he noted: “You see all of them sitting around, saying there’s nothing to do? They can get on a bus and ride all over the state!”
As he wrote at the end of the introduction to his book: “Now get ready to go out and enjoy all the free or low-cost places to see that I write about. Don’t just stay at home. Go to see all you can in your senior retirement years without a car.”
We boarded the number 212 bus that pulled up outside one of the Bella Vista buildings at 2p.m. I am not as old as DeMartin, who is 75, but he told me I am old enough to ride as a senior, for 85 cents. He used his monthly senior pass, which costs him $30.60. You can bet he makes full use of it.
Our bus was about half-full as we headed to the New Haven Green. DeMartin filled me in on his health problems: “I’m blind in my left eye and my left hand shakes from the stroke I had in 1988. My first heart attack was in 1995, my second was in 2009. But God’s been good to me. Being blind in one eye, I’m afraid some day I’ll go blind completely, so I thank God for everything every day.”
“I love riding the bus!” he said. “I love to see people and various things. I love seeing the countryside.’
I asked if he ever uses a taxi or any other driving
“I go everywhere: Old Saybrook, Middletown — I like their restaurants on Main Street. I go to Hartford to see the rose garden in Elizabeth Park; any place of interest. I like them all.” Dennis DeMartin
service. “No, I don’t. I take buses everywhere. I’m what they call a cheapskate. I go everywhere: Old Saybrook, Middletown — I like their restaurants on Main Street. I go to Hartford, to see the rose garden in Elizabeth Park; any place of interest. I like them all. You can go all the way to UConn.”
DeMartin was on a roll: “I could get you to the casinos for 85 cents. I took buses all the way to Mystic Seaport. I took a bus from Bella Vista to the New Haven Green, to the bus to Madison, then transferred in Old Saybrook, transferred there to New London and transferred there to get to Mystic. We’re talking 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get there.”
When he made that trip, DeMartin left Bella
Vista at 6 a.m., enjoyed himself walking around Mystic Seaport, rode the buses back and returned home at 8 or 9 p.m. He laughed and said, “Now you know why the ladies don’t want to go with me!”
In his book, DeMartin describes the day he took a female companion to Gillette Castle in East Haddam and the Essex Steam Train.
They left Bella Vista at 8:15 a.m. and were gone until 8:30 p.m. “I could see she was having second thoughts,” he wrote of her demeanor in the middle of that long day. “I realized this might be my last date with her.”
DeMartin wrote a book about that topic too. He called it “The Trials and Tribulations of a Senior Citizen Trying to Get a Date Without a Car.”
He told me: “I go on a date and she will ask: ‘Where’s your car?’ I say, ‘I got here by bus.’ Then they don’t want to go with you anymore. Especially in Florida, they want a man with a car.”
DeMartin should know; he moved to that state from Connecticut in 1988. While down there he began writing books about his bus experiences, including “Travels of a Senior Citizen Without a Car.” (All of his books are available on Amazon.com.)
While in Florida, he also ran into legal problems. In 2012 DeMartin was a juror in the trial of a defendant facing charges (he was allegedly drunk) for a motor vehicle crash that killed a 23-year-old man.
On the night before the closing arguments, DeMartin decided to experiment in order to determine the effects of consuming three strong drinks. And so DeMartin drank three vodka tonics.
The jury found the defendant guilty. But the defense attorneys appealed the verdict, claiming it was unjust because of DeMartin’s drinking experiment, his writing a book about the trial and not disclosing during jury selection his ex-wife’s arrest for driving under the influence. The defendant was granted a new trial but convicted again.
DeMartin wrote a book about this too, called “37 Days in the County Jail and Still Believing in the Truth.”
During one of the court hearings, DeMartin wrote, “I did lose my cool” while on the witness stand and the judge sentenced him to serve five months and 29 days for contempt of court. DeMartin’s son got him out on bond after 37 days. In 2016, the judge finally ruled DeMartin would not serve any additional jail time, mostly because of his poor health.
DeMartin was sheepish as he described all this to me on the bus. “I’m not a criminal but I argued with the judge. I’ve gotta learn to keep my mouth shut is what I’ve gotta do.”
As a result of his protracted court saga, he lost his condo and moved back to New Haven five years ago.
But it’s obvious he enjoys himself in his old-home area. He grew up in West Haven and delights in riding around that town on what he calls “the Memory Bus.”
He notes what sites remain and what have been lost (the Forest Theater, for example).
After we made it to the New Haven Green, we got a cup of coffee, then boarded another 212 run at 2:52 p.m. to return to Bella Vista. DeMartin called out to the passengers and bus drivers he has gotten to know. The bus was packed in midafternoon.
Our trip ended at 3:20 p.m. DeMartin showed me “the bus room” in Building B, where he makes sure the schedules are kept up to date.
Meanwhile, he is working on yet another book, “Beyond New Haven Buses.”
It will tell us all about those runs to places such as Old Saybrook, New London and Mystic.