I wish I had a cute picture of me from 1985 to kick off this post, but I'm at work so a bit limited.
Yesterday and today are the first days back for most of the schools in our area. Half the kids at Nicole’s daycare will disappear to Pre-School through 6th grade so when I visited yesterday it was so quiet it was almost eerie (granted the most of little ones were taking a nap). This morning as I passed the high school on the way to work the lights were flashing and students were waiting at the street corner to head into school. Made me a bit nostalgic so I thought I’d jot down a few school bus memories of my own:
- Now I don’t actually remember this but my mom turns into my grandfather and starts repeating herself when it comes to this story…. Apparently my first day of kindergarten (which would have been August 1983, age 4) was my first experience riding a bus to school. I apparently firmly announced that I was very grown up and was going to go to the bus-stop alone, without my mother. She just as clearly told her that there was no way she wasn’t going to the bus-stop with me but she would let me walk ahead of her up the street.
- In gradeschool the bus-stop was at the foot of my aunt and uncle’s driveway which was 4 houses up the street on the opposite side. We’d watch out our family room window for the bus to pull in and then we’d start our walk up to the corner as the bus looped around the neighborhood on it’s way to us. This normally worked out okay but there were times we missed seeing it pull in and were startled by it’s journey up our length of the street. Those times we sprinted out the door and up Chagrin to the corner. The bus driver normally slowed way down so our little legs kept us ahead of her and allow us to “make it in time.”
- In the winter my dad would drive us the block and let us sit in the warm, running car until the bus came. He always had a cup of coffee “to go” but for some reason it made him salivate so inevitably he’d crack the window and spit out of it. I firmly remember the morning he didn’t roll the window down far enough and ended up putting a huge “loogey” on the glass.
- All the little kids “had to” sit up front as dictated by seniority rules. By the time I hit 7th grade I was in the second last row and thinking I was cool as shit. When spring hit Jonathan Baker started bringing his boom box on the bus and we’d jam out to Boys II Men’s Motownphilly.
7 comments:
I never got to ride a bus to school. The only time I rode buses was during field trips. In highschool I remember making signs and holding them up in the rear of the bus that said things like "honk if you are happy"
and "laugh if you got some last night".
In HS you were putting up signs that said the latter? Where was I? How did I not know this was going on?
I rode a bus from 1st grade (kindergarden maybe?) through Jr year of HS. We always waited for the bus to drive past our driveway. Then we would have enough time to grab our stuff and get out to the stop (at the end of our driveway) before it came back. We rarely missed the bus.
I can't say I ever felt "cool" riding the bus... In HS I slept most of the time, primarily because we'd have to wait at Assumption at the "change over" spot for a while before the ride to McA.
There were times I loved riding the bus, and times I hated it...but it does bring back memories.
My favorite memories always involved the crazy old lady, I think she drove bus #72....she backed into fences, signs, mailboxes, etc on a regular basis. When students threw grapes out the window into a passing convertible, we got pulled over by a man saying he was a DEA and that behavior was illegal (are grapes narcotics or something???), and she responded with, "you're dead on arrival?" ahh...good times.
Kathy's so right. She was my favorite bus driver. She was fabulous. And she often provided candy to us (how many other bus drivers were anally adament you don't eat or drink anything on their bus,not even your own cud (you know...in case you're a ruminant).
I still think about the grape deal a lot - that was freaking hilarious!
LOVED the story about your dad. :-)
When I was in elementary school we lived across the street from school. By the middle of 7th grade we'd moved, and I loved taking the bus for that year and a half. Everyone else thought I was crazy, but it was such a novelty. I guess I was lucky because I immediately got to go to the back of the bus!
You seriously got to sit in the car?!?! SPOILED!!!! My mom made me walk UPHILL and stand in the cold. At least it was only uphill one way.....
Post a Comment