I just found this blog today through another blog I read. Jennifer at The life of a School Bus Driver posted a contest entry asking her readers to blog about their experience with riding the school bus or a memory of. And hey, I’m game because OMG…she’s taunting me with these. She really knows how to play to my weaknesses. So here goes.
When I went off to public school for kindergarten and was to be held back because I couldn’t quite read at the end of the year, I was moved over to a Catholic Elementary school nearby with the promise of being promoted to 1st grade. I spent 1st through 6th grades in St. Mary’s, and the entire time I had Winnie as my school bus driver. Winnie was old. I mean to a 1st grader a 20 year old would seem old, but Winnie was legitimately old. She had to be in her 60’s (sorry mom!) if not 70’s, and God bless her she was still driving School Bus # 81. Yup, I sure do remember I rode school bus 81 for all 6 years I was in Catholic School.
Winnie was such a sweet old lady. She really was. I couldn’t have asked for a better school bus driver. Sure, I had my moments where she got mad at me and benched me and forbid me from even getting up out of my seat, but we were best buds. I cried at the end of school each year, not because I would miss school (HA!) but because I wouldn’t see Winnie for 2 months. I was her first stop in the morning (because I lived the furthest away) which also meant I was the last stop on the way home. Winnie and I had a lot of one on one time.
Well my one particular memory was in the warmer months of May and June. Since I was the last stop and those buses are disgustingly hot, after we dropped off the last people before me, we would pass by a local market on the way to my house, Winnie would stop the bus, pull out her own. hard. earned. money. and send me inside to buy ice cream for the two of us. (Oh my goodness, can you even imagine the nightmare if that type of thing happened in the world we lived in today? Ugh! Parent’s would sue the bus company and the school district and the bus driver’s mother so fast it would send the entire community into a tail spin.) Even at that young age, I appreciated Winnie’s little gesture. I sometimes think about Winnie, where she is, what she’s doing and ugh…is she even still alive (because God that was 23 or so years ago so she’d have to be a hundred and ten by now). I miss Winnie. She was the bestest school bus driver ever!!! I don’t remember seeing Winnie in my junior high and high school years, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t around. God Bless Winnie wherever she may be!
