Joanne Butler, MBTA Driver
May 3rd, 2007
In a two-room shanty on the railroads behind the Riverside T station, a television on the wall shouts out the latest Fox News announcements. While T-drivers take their break around two boxes filled with doughnuts, Joanne Butler prefers to pick on her new colleague.
“Did they allow you to shave your head and wear those shinny silver crosses?” she asks, pointing at the young man’s Michael Jordan earrings. “Did you sing rap music before you worked here?”
Teasing is a golden rule among T-drivers.
“We call [Joanne] “Half-Pint” because she’s only 5’3”,” says Tim, one of Butler’s colleague who declined to give his last name. But she never lets them go too far. “That woman, she’s a character,” he adds.
