It's there for a reason...

I've got a new section added to my route this year. Part of this new area includes a turn around at a state park. There is one speed bump, only on one side of the road, right by the office at the stop sign. My pregnant belly plus my air-ride bus plus this speed bump equals a huge discomfort for me! My solution? Simple, as long as no one is coming, I slip into the other lane and slide right around that annoying bump :)

One of my brilliant kindergarten kids always says "hit the bump, hit the bump" I say "no Cory, we don't like that bump". Cory and I have this conversation every day. Sometimes one of the other kids will say hit the bump before Cory says it to which I'll hear Cory reply "we don't like this bump, do we Miss Tee"... that kid always makes me smile! So the other day, I stop at the stop sign and whip around the speed bump, as usual, and Cory says "hit the bump Miss Tee, it's there for a reason". I have no idea where that came from so I say "well do you know the reason that it's there?" He says "yup, so you don't drive so fast".

BEEP... BEEP...

I have been told I have a bit of a lead foot, but I don't speed... too often! :/

And another one bites the dust...

I'm not the most senior driver in our district, nope, I fall shamelessly somewhere in the middle. Stuck between a pay I'll never achieve and a route I never want. It's a good place, that middle that I call home. I have just enough seniority that no one above me wants my route and in the unlikely event of a layoff, I am not at risk of losing my job.

My route has been dubbed the "make you or break you" route. I have way too many kids, we're loaded to capacity... it kind of looks like a day care in there. It's not a big mileage route, but I have 58 stops. I cross railroad tracks 10 times per day. I turn around 20 times per day. My roads are super narrow, I'm talking 'if you have oncoming traffic, you just stop and make them figure out how to go around you' narrow. My roads are secondary to secondary roads and are not plowed the first day of snow plowing, nor are they plowed the second day... My ditches are so big that they look more like little rivers rather than ditches, seriously, they could swallow the bus whole. If I ever went in one of those ditches, it wouldn't be like just sliding into a ditch, it would be more like flip, roll, smash, and fill with water as we try desperately to emergency evacuate way too many kids from a flipped over smashed up bus... and I don't think you would even be able to see us from the road - I'm not testing that theory though, I'll just keep the visual and keep myself away from the ditches!

Back to the sub... Our new subs are required to ride/drive with older drivers several times before being allowed to go out on their own. They used to always drive with the most senior drivers, of which I am not. Then they drive with a driver on a "tough" route, mine has never been considered tough. UNTIL... my supervisor rode with me one day. Now, the subs ride/drive with me first. My route has broken several drivers who have claimed to drive for years in other districts, they can't handle the turn arounds, they can't handle the large number of kids, and they hate the narrow roads.

The other day I was told we had a new sub starting. She had 15 years experience driving in another district and she was currently subbing for a neighboring district. So she gets on my bus the first morning, she was to be with me for 3 days. That afternoon my supervisor says "you lost another one"...


And another sub comes...
And another sub drives...
Another sub bites the dust...

Did I really just say that...

With a good handful of middle school aged boys, it is expected that the back of the bus will erupt into "awww..." and "ohhh..." - the back 4 or 5 seats worth of boys jumping up with their shirts over their noses and windows shooting down and a roar of uncontrolled laughter. Inevitably, one boy will remain sitting in his seat, nose uncovered, shoulders shaking up and down with his laughter... the culprit.

Boys will be boys, right! It's all good, so long as it stays in the back of the bus!

Yesterday, however, a group of boys move up to the front two seats. They're a smidgen younger than the middle school boys so I imagine they're most likely trying to figure out exactly where they fit, which right now, is nowhere.

Being the "good" bus driver that I am, I ignore their conversation. My brain has been trained to listen for cue words, if I hear them then I hone in on the conversation and decide if I need to intervene or if I can let that one be. So I hear "... I'm gonna tell" and I start listening. "don't do it man"... laughter... "MISS TEE..." and it hits me - a wave of stink so rank that I gag and nearly lose my lunch (yes I'm pregnant again, so smells really bother me!). Anyway, they continue to "tell" on their friend who has passed gas. I say "no passing gas on the bus". They laugh and say huh... I say "no farting on the bus". They laugh again. The little kids start laughing and talking about farting... shoot, I should have chosen my words a bit more wisely. Then I hear another one and cover my nose before it can get to me and I say very loudly "NO MAKING STINKIES ON THE BUS!"... and think, did I really just say that!!???!?!?!

From the mouths of babes...

As far as school bus drivers go around here, I'm fairly young. Needless to say, I drove a school bus during pregnancy two years ago. I have 2 cute little stories that I can think of right now...

On my bus, there's a bunch of little, I mean really little ones (they're my favorite, shh don't tell). Anyways, I also shuttle our preschool kids from the preschool to the main school so they can catch their buses. One of the preschool classes has me come in and talk about the school bus, we talk about safety, how to sit, we sing "The Wheels on the Bus", it's a cute time. One of the preschool kids who rides my bus sees me walk in... he had really only seen me sitting down, but all the kids on my bus knew I was pregnant. His eyes grew so big and he says "Miss Tee, your belly is sooo big" and smiles... his teacher looks at him like oh boy, and the other kids all stare at my belly. I say "Collin, you know why my belly is so big" he says very matter of factly "yeah, because you eat too much". Straight from the mouth of babes!

As the kids are getting on the bus in the afternoon to go home, many of the little children like to give me a hug and tell me something very important that happened to them that day. One day, one of my little cuties gives me a hug then backs up with his arms still on my belly, looks up at me and says "Miss Tee... um... I think you're getting fat..." I smile and say "Bobby, there's a baby growing in my belly". He thinks for a minute and says "are you pregnant?" I tell him I sure am, then he says "well, then I guess you're not getting fat". The things kids say!

The Little Blonde Cutie...

I remember one day during my first week driving this little blonde cutie was all over the place. I could barely see her head over the seat, when she was sitting... she did NOT like sitting! She was up and down, around the seats, in the aisle, disappeared (under the seat???), then she hopped over the seat. All this time I kept saying "SIT DOWN"... maybe she thought I wasn't talking to her.

I stopped the bus, for my first time, called her up front and told her she needed to stay sitting on her bottom because she could get hurt otherwise. That lasted for about 15 seconds... I stopped again, turned off the bus, got out of my seat and walked back to third seat where she was hopping around. I leaned over her and said "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" A scared little girl looks up at me with wide eyes and says "Allie". With my voice still raised, I say "ALLIE, DO YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOUR DAD THAT YOU DON'T SIT DOWN ON THE BUS?" wide eyes and no reply... "DO YOU?" nothing "WELL, DO YOU?" with her eyes as wide as can be she manages to shake her head... so I say "well then sit on your bottom like I told you".

She didn't move the rest of the ride... dad must be pretty scary!

The next morning she gets on and I tell her to sit "right here" as I point to the first seat. She was good as gold and I even got a hug when she got off my bus :)

Allie sat right in that front seat the whole year and I never had another problem with her, and I can't even tell you how many hugs I got from her. She would get on in the afternoon and tell me about her day before we left, she was all smiles, all giggles, and all sweet and loving. I had the pleasure of her presence on my bus for a couple of years, they have since moved out of district, but every time I drive past that empty house I think of the little blonde cutie.

Driving a school bus

I've been driving a school bus for several years now. Ask me 20 years ago and I'd never have dreamed I'd be driving a school bus, in fact, 20 years ago I thought I'd be a successful doctor by now. I wanted to be either a pediatrician or an obstetrician. Things change. Ask me 15 years ago, I had recently graduated high school and was taking my general ed classes and working my way through college in a restaurant... I hung up the doctor idea when I realized how expensive school was and I decided I could be a teacher. Things change. I got promoted in my restaurant job and ended up becoming a General Manager. Ask me 10 years ago and I would have thought I'd be up that restaurant ladder by now. Things change. Shoot, ask me 5 years ago and I still wouldn't have said school bus driver, not in a million years. But, things change...

Years ago, we moved across country, I had a great job that I LOVED and made decent money working. My husband had a good paying job and our bills were paid. We had a super cute house, we both drove a nice vehicle, and I even had me a totally fun second job, not because I had to, but because I wanted to. After several years, my husband brought up moving back "home" and I gave in...

So we had a moving sale, packed up, and moved "home". He got a job in the same capacity as the job he had left, I was not as lucky. Nothing could be found. The job I loved was gone, there was nothing even remotely similar that I could do in our new home so I hit the help wanted ads. There it was, in black and white, school bus drivers wanted please call xxx-xxxx, so I did. The man that answered the phone spoke in a very monotone voice, I am pretty upbeat and it was hard to keep up with that voice. He said do you have experience driving a school bus... um no. No problem, do you have a CDL... um no. Do you think you can get one... sure. Ok, do you at least have a Michigan drivers license... um no, but I do have one from another state. Ok, we can work with that - here's what you need to do... 6 weeks later I was behind the wheel of a school bus on the first day of school, likely more anxious than any single kid waiting for me that day. I had only driven a bus several times during training, but I did it well. It was my first day on the job, my first day driving with kids actually on the bus, it was morning, it was dark, and I was nervous as all hell.

That was 4 years ago, and I'm still driving, and I love it. I'm going to reflect on some of the stories from the previous years as well as a daily/weekly journal of sorts of the happenings from my days as a school bus driver. Enjoy.