12 Years on the Big Yellow School Bus
School Memories – Part 1
I was Fortunate to Get to Ride the School Bus
You might wonder why I say I was fortunate to get to ride the school bus! I say that because I truly consider it a fortunate experience, now that I’m older.
Many wonderful, life-long friendships were established on those bus rides. And I have memories of so many people from those days.
My sisters had to walk about a mile to school for many years. My mother rode a horse 8 miles to get to high school. So, when the school bus came right to our driveway, that was progress. Of course, at the time, I didn’t always see it that way. That’s because we had a long driveway that I had to walk up and down to get to the bus and back to the house.
When I started 1st grade, I think my mother walked me down to the bus a couple of times because I was a timid little girl who hardly knew any other kids on the bus. But even though she was a stay-at-home mom, it would never have occurred to her to drive me to school as many of the parents do now.
The Bus Drivers
Never underestimate the importance of any school employee. Bus drivers are often undervalued and not given much attention. I think I can name all of my drivers through the years but can’t for the life of me remember my 8th grade teacher!
I had Forrest Brown, John Durk, Andy Fry, Charlie Fugate and Leo Burt (I think in that order). Forrest was my first driver. He was especially kind to me. We had pretty cold winters and by the time I’d walk down the driveway and wait for the bus, I was freezing. Often, he would call me up to the front of the bus and let me sit on top of the heater that was just to the left of his seat.
Later, I had John and Andy. I knew both of them because they lived in my community, and I knew their kids. They were good about giving us treats for Christmas. In those days, it was pretty special when you received a soda or a candy bar.
Charlie was a preacher, but I didn’t know that until I got to know his son in high school. He also happened to be my husband’s substitute elementary teacher. So, when we selected the minister to perform our marriage, we picked him because we both had fond memories of him. I guess you could definitely call him a jack of all trades!
Leo Burt is the driver I remember the best for several reasons–he wasn’t a great driver, we treated him terrible, and he became the second husband of one of our very good family friends!
I don’t know who started it, but someone called him Daffy one day and it immediately stuck. I don’t remember anyone calling him that to his face, but he had to have heard everyone referring to him as Daffy.
Leo was the best natured guy, though. He took our teasing in stride and never seemed to hold it against us.
Regarding his driving, I’ll just say I remember that he hit the metal guard rails of two different bridges in one day! Each time, he just looked up at us in the rearview mirror and smiled.
Imagine my surprise when the family friend, Arabella, first brought Leo to church with her. I was mortified. What would he tell her and my parents about me and about us all calling him Daffy? Turns out, I don’t think he told her, and I know for a fact that he never mentioned it to my parents, or my dad would’ve punished me good! Instead, Leo taught me humility by being very nice to me the rest of his life and I came to realize that he was a very kind man that I had mistreated and underappreciated.
The last driver I remember was Bernie Dixon. She drove the bus to the ball games when I was in high school. She spoke to each student as we boarded and exited. But more than that, she allowed us to cheer and sing very loudly all the way to and from games. We’d especially get rowdy when we would compete in class chants.
The School Bus of the 60’s and 70’s
Today, there are many added safety features on busses that, thankfully, we did not have when I rode the school bus. They may be safer today, but they were more fun back then. For one thing, the seat backs were much lower. You could easily see all the kids in front and in back of you. Today, a little kid can only see who they sit with and maybe who is across from them.
We were also allowed to sit backwards to better visit with someone. We did not have to be very quiet. Lots of talking was allowed. In high school, we often played card games.
We did get into a few one-vehicle accidents where we would run off the road and get stuck in a ditch. This was relatively easy to do as the gravel roads would get very muddy or packed with snow drifts. I don’t remember anyone ever getting hurt. Sometimes we would get really cold, especially if we had to all pile off the bus and wait in a snow drift while someone came and pulled the bus out.
The only injury I remember involved me and a pencil. For some reason I had just sharpened a pencil before boarding the bus. As I was standing in the aisle, someone shoved me and the pencil point went from my left hand, pierced my right palm and broke off. I had to wait until I got home to try to get it out.
My mother tried to pry the lead point out with a needle as I hysterically cried and screamed. She became quite impatient with my behavior as I kept jerking my hand away. Finally, she gave up and took me to the doctor to have it removed. After numbing shots and many minutes, the doctor removed about two inches of lead from my palm along with lots of shavings and flecks of yellow paint off that #2 pencil and finished with 4 stitches. All the way home, my mom apologized for yelling and saying she didn’t realize it was so bad. I can still make out the scar from those stitches!
Life-Long Friends
The best thing about riding the school bus, was the wonderful friendships that were established. Friendships that have lasted through decades. And I have memories of so many different people whom I would have never known if it weren’t for riding the bus.
Two of my very best friends today, Janet and Patty, grew up just down the gravel road from me. However, in those days, unless families went to the same church (ours didn’t), you didn’t usually see your neighbors much. My parents were older than theirs and they just didn’t run in the same circles. I knew Patty a little, but I never even met Janet until we were on the bus, and we lived less than 2 miles from each other! For a rural area, that’s close. We each were in different grades, but our friendship grew stronger the more years we rode the bus together.
Other really good friends I made on the bus were Debbie and her brother, Mike, and my classmates, Lester and Gary.
Lots of Large Families Rode the School Bus
It seems through the years, that there were lots of siblings on my bus. I guess I really noticed it since I never had any to ride with me. I especially remember these families —
Chris, Benny, David, Mary Ann, Randy & Joe; Mike, Debbie, Vickie, Robbie, Ronnie & Patrick; Richard, Randall, Gary (Joe), Kathy (Sue), Sandy (Doodle), Cindy & Jennifer (Poo) This family lived near a very rickety old bridge we had to cross each day; Cindy, Judy, Bob, Kathy, Charlie & George; Julie, Robbie, Marsha, Deanna & Tom. This family lived near a low water crossing which would be impassable whenever we’d get a big rain; Lea Ann, Gene, Brenda, Kathy & Debbie.
There was also a large family whom I can’t remember the names of except for my classmates, Faith & Maureen. I don’t remember how many were in their family, but I remember often waiting for them as they also had a long driveway to walk down, and they never seemed to walk together or be on time! Just as the bus would be pulling away, someone would shout, “Here comes another one!” and this might happen two or three times each stop.
I was always a bit jealous of these big families since I was the only child at home. They seemed to have such a good time and were very protective of each other. You didn’t want to say the wrong thing to one of them or the whole group would gang up on you! I never had that experience growing up.
Specific Memories
Several memories stand out for me–
Because I had to walk down a long driveway in the winter, my mother made me wear pants under my dress on cold days. I can remember being very embarrassed by this. She also made me wear galoshes which I also wasn’t fond of!
Twins, Linda and Donna, being part American Indian, had beautiful jet-black hair which they always wore in a “beehive” style. I don’t know if they always got up late or their parents didn’t want them wearing make-up, but I distinctly remember them daily applying eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick. I was enthralled watching them. I don’t think until then I had ever seen anyone wear eyeshadow or eyeliner. They were in 8th grade when I was in 1st.
Robbie, Marvin and Richard were all older boys. I can remember them picking on me as a little kid and the bus driver getting after them. Richard is the only one that I occasionally saw after we became adults. He was a quiet man, but he always spoke to me whenever we would see each other. Janet, Patty and I have often talked about how friendly he always was to us as adults even though we had hardly known him except for on the bus.
Sisters, Jackie and Carla also picked on me. I remember Jackie once twisting my arm behind my back to get me to beg for mercy. I reminded Carla of this a couple of years ago and she was amazed and had no recollection of that. Yes, there was bullying back then too. But I never complained to my parents, and I think it made me a stronger person. I look back on it now with a bit of humor. Other people may have memories of me later becoming a bully, who knows. Kids can be mean; that’s just a fact.
Mike and Linda–Mike, the younger of the two, always took his time ambling to the bus. His older sister, Linda, however, would rush to the bus, rush to her seat and rush to try to finish her shorthand homework. I don’t think she ever had it done before she’d get on the bus. After I learned shorthand, I wondered how she could make hers legible while writing it on a bumpy gravel road on a bus.
The “Facts of Life”
I also learned a lot on the school bus about things I’d never been exposed to before. I’d never heard anyone cuss until the bus. I’d never heard anyone talk about sex until the bus. I also learned that some kids were punished at home a little too severely. Some didn’t have much food, clothes or money.
None of these things made me think any less of the kids but I started developing more empathy for others and my “worldly knowledge” grew immensely. I look upon this as a good thing that happened to a relatively sheltered kid.
Lots of Miles on the Road
I rode the bus to school all 12 years of school. Some years I was the first one on and the last one off. A couple of years, the bus drove down our private back driveway, picked me up at my house and then headed down our front driveway. That was a game changer for me!
My senior year of high school, I rode the bus 1 1/2 hours in the morning and another 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon. That was also the year my dad decided I should be the one to feed the cattle before going to school! No one ever complained, but I wonder if I ever smelled like the silage I had just loaded into the feeding troughs with a pitchfork. Daddy always said silage smelled like money but, truthfully, it smelled horrible!
My school district was the third largest in square miles, in the state. http://www.nc.k12.mo.us The busses would take students to our three elementary buildings. From there, the high schoolers would continue on the bus to the high school building. My Hatton route would go as far north as our district ran all the way south to McCredie. It was a lot of miles.
What’s Your School Bus Memories?
My kids also rode the school bus. I only remember them having two drivers. Lutie Tilton drove it for many years and then they had Dee Ann Hughes. The only memories they talk of are when Betsy got a jawbreaker stuck in her mouth/throat and Lutie had to stop the bus and come back and remove it. And, when my son threw another student’s books out the window (thankfully, this wasn’t going down the road but in the kid’s driveway!)
My grandkids don’t get to have many memories at all of riding the bus as most of the time, their parents have driven them to school. I think parents drive their kids to school to save them the hassle of riding the bus and they are also afraid of what they might be exposed to on there. I’m not sure how I feel about that since I have such good memories of my time spent on the school bus.
What do you remember? Did any of my readers ride the bus to Hatton? Do you recognize any of the family names? Did you have good experiences? What about bad ones? I’m interested in your perspective. Please share below in the comments section.
Next, I plan to post about some elementary school memories. Our grandkids start school this week and I pray they can enjoy their time there as much as I did.