Check out more school bus driving stories.
Links at bottom of page.
I never set out to drive a school bus
Except for transport to track and cross country meets, I never rode one as a kid. I just needed a job many years ago. The turnover is such that, if you leave in good stead, it seems you can always come back. I just retired from my third time around.
School bus drivers are a much more interesting and dedicated bunch than usually portrayed in popular culture. Think of the speeding (driving), druggy Otto Mann on the Simpsons, Southpark’s hagatha MS Crabtree, or the uber-lenient Rick Gassko in Bachelor Party.
Speaking of Tom Hanks, who played Gassko, the closest thing to a sympathetic school bus driver I’ve seen in entertainment is Dorothy Harris in Forrest Gump and she’s got a cigarette hanging from her lip.
The truth is, as you hopefully might imagine, very different. Because driving a school bus is seldom a full time job and has holidays and summers off, it appeals to retired people. Thus drivers come from a wide swath of backgrounds, including homemakers, military retirees, corporate managers and executives, with the occasional retired lawyer or professor thrown in.
Drivers very often become confessor and friend of the lonely and troubled. School bus drivers identify abused children, and have been the sympathetic ears that prevented youth suicides. There is plenty of overheard humor too. And that is what I seem to focus on.
There are an estimated 600,000 school bus drivers in the U.S. Dealing with kids, and the driving public, day in and day out gives them a wealth of experiences and stories, of which I intend to relate my share.
Check out more school bus driving stories:
Mine:
Other peoples’:
- Facebook: Vintage School Bus Archives/Carpenter & Wayne Bus Group. A great, very active, site if you have a history of school bus driving.