Thread: Need help on bus origins.

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Originally Posted by MelloYello

Howdy Mate,
I just wanted to let you know that I "AM" getting your emails but I don't think that you are getting my email replies and information Therefore, I am forced to PM you anything that I find out or need.
Be sure and check your PM's daily and hopefully I can help you with this.
Mello

Sweet!
Yeah; it's a bit of a b#%%^r not being able to receive your e-mails...but will check my PMs daily.
I don't know if the lady has replied to me or not...I might not be receiving her e-mail either.
Thanks mate!

Yee-ha!
Fan-b^**&%-tastic!
At the moment we're approaching the end of a tour of the U.S. of A.
We have about another five days in Perry Oklahoma until we fly back to New Zealand.
I'll quote from my diary.

Monday 20th September.

Headed off to Perry Oklahoma, the nearest place of any size to Billings, which is where our bus came from.
First stop was a motel, (Super 8,) then the Tourist Information run by the local Chamber of Commerce.
Our reception was overwhelming...pure magic.
Nothing was too much trouble; local people who knew the local people.
They got their phones working while everything else was put on 'hold'...other people coming in were shown the letter I had written and they too started getting involved..."Didn't she marry..." "No, she's married to..." and "He's dead; killed in a truck smash forty years back." and "Doesn't he live in..." "Yep, still there..." and so on and so forth.
Amazing.
Next thing we knew they had organised an after lunch appointment with Marilyn Sue Waltermire (nee Durkee) who works just around the corner at the Noble Tractor Co.
She promptly rang her brother Bruce who turned up too.
Then the reporter from the local paper...had to pose for a photo and everything.
Amazing...pure magic...just too much to assimilate...

Then out to Billings itself, where on an off-chance we called in at Kurt's Bits of This and That where we spoke with a Dick Smeltzer...once again our reception was just amazing.
If you want to meet genuinely fine people talk to small-town Americans.

Tuesday 21st September.

Back to Billings; Dick Smeltzer had arranged through a lady named Debby, who is the school secretary, for us to go to the school to check the Graduation photos...there we were able to verify what Mrs Marilyn (Durkee) Waltermire had told us yesterday...that which we had written down as 'Sid' Mason was actually 'Sue' Mason.
Not that we doubted her word!
Seems we're the talk of the town...we showed some kids at the school where we came from on a world globe...later, driving through town, She heard some kid yell "Hey! Those are the folks that bought a Billings School bus!"
Dick has also arranged for us to have a private tour of the local museum...hopefully to absorb something of what made the town what it is today.
Learned a lot too from just talking with locals...the nodding neddies are all pumping oil, not water, the crop I couldn't identify was beans, they call lucerne alfalfa, and to top it off we got invited to a barbeque at the local Baptist Church next Sunday!
Whew!

Nothing like getting a slice of old town America first hand.
Glad you've enjoyed yourself & have found pieces of your puzzle.
And come one back any time....joe

Any more updates Inspector Clouseau of Rahotu?

now that is funny life

Barb.
If you ever meet John then you will know right off, he has a crazy sense of humour..

:lol::d:lol:

Originally Posted by LIFESTYLZ

Any more updates Inspector Clouseau of Rahotu?

Yeah, sorry Clive; mea culpa.
It's just that since getting home I've been flat-out like a lizard drinking.
Mowing the lawns, trying to get some landscaping done, various runs/events, a broken car...retirement ain't for wimps!
It's astonishingly hard yakka!

I'll quote from my diary:


Wednesday 22nd September.

Out to Billings again to talk to a Mrs McCluskie; an ex teacher at Billings School, and the custodian of one the local museums; the local Doctor's house.
A very interesting and informative lady...a great way to spend a day.
Learned a lot about the once bustling town of Billings.

Thursday 23rd September.

This morning, Thursday, we went to the 'Kumback Diner' for a cuppa; not only was it complementary, but the owner gave us a free 'Kumback Diner' tee shirt, and a copy of today's paper which featured us as front-page news!
(Okay: so we had to sit like a couple of dorks holding the paper while we had our picture taken...again...but we can handle that...we're Kiwis, we're tough...and the cuppa, tee shirt, and paper were free.)
World famous in Perry Oklahoma.

The response has been overwhelming; well and truly over and above what we expected.
Small-town American folk are amazingly generous people.

Friday 24th September.

A local historian, Clyde Speer, had told us to pick him up at the Tourist Information Centre and he would give us a tour of the Perry Museum.
I enjoy museums; they (for the main part,) give you an idea of where, why, and how.
This one is not particularly big, on my own I suppose I would have spent an hour; but with Clyde giving us a tour and commentary we spent over three hours and loved it!

We then shot out to Guthrie, another town in the vicinity; but it didn't seem to have the character and soul of Perry or Billings.

Saturday 25th September,

Back out to Billings for their Wheat Festival, surprisingly well done for such a small community.
Several people approached and talked to us; which prompted me to ask "How do you know who we are?"
"Oh everybody does; behind your back everybody's pointing and saying 'That's them; the people from New Zealand who bought the bus'."
Buddy L.
World famous in Billings too!

Some fella, sorry, I've forgotten his name, piled us into his truck and drove us out to his ranch and gave us a guided tour...very informative and much appreciated...they run one beef animal to five acres; hence the large areas required.
A very different system from ours; no rotational grazing as such, and cows seem to calve any time of the year.
Very different.

Sunday 26th September.

Out to the Baptist Church at Billings (and no, it didn't collapse from a visit from a couple of heathens like ourselves...) where we were welcomed with open arms.
Then, halfway through the service, a picture was flashed up onto the overhead screen.
Buddy L!
It's our bus!
I then had to get up and explain to the about 140 people in the congregation who we were, where we came from, and why we were there.
Very embarrassing.
But they did give us a great lunch!
And for free!

Monday 27th September.

Out to another wee town, Stillwater, where they had a 'Geek Squad' shop, to see if they could salvage anything from my computer.
Had a walk around while we waited for them to see what they could retrieve, and found the first book shop I had seen so far; where I managed to buy a copy of 'Hemmings', a catalogue of car parts.
So that was all good.
But the geeks couldn't find anything on the computer.
Bugger.

Tuesday 28th September.

Drove around Perry saying our goodbyes and thank-yous and headed back to La Quinta Hotel in Oklahoma City.
Sorry to go actually; we've met some very fine people.

Wednesday 29th September.

Out to Oklahoma City Airport. dropped the rental car off, had a last cigarette, and flew out to Los Angeles.
About four hours...then an eight hour wait for our flight to Auckland...boring...then a twelve hour flight to Auckland...which was when I worked out that it should be legal to slaughter any child under the age of five (and some over,) on an inter-continental flight...just dropping off to sleep and one of them would squeal...not cry; cry I can handle...but squeal...no.
And you're awake.
Twenty minutes later, just nodding off, and it would be another one.


Arrived Auckland around 6:30 am Friday 1st October.
A long time without a cigarette!

American people are great; very proud to be American, very friendly, and extremely kind and courteous.
And we're very pleased to have met the ones we did.
Thank-you.

Although there's a major thing we Kiwis could teach them; our toilet bowls are vastly different and far superior...when you sit on ours your dangly bits don't hit the water.
Gross!


Okay, that's about it from us for this month, so “Cheers” until next time, and may whatever Gods you worship smile on you!

johnboy and She Who Must Be Obeyed.


DISCLAIMER: Be aware that the views and opinions expressed by the author of this missive are bloody good ones.

Since then I have been in contact via the interweb with Mrs Waltermire, (a fine lady,) and she has supplied me with one or two anecdotes; so it's all good.
We saw the country our bus travelled over, met some of the kids who'd been on it, and certainly learned a lot about the area.
All good.

Originally Posted by LIFESTYLZ

Barb.
If you ever meet John then you will know right off, he has a crazy sense of humour..

Who, me?
Nah...you've got me confused with my brother.
He's the black sheep of the family...he took up hairdressing.
That's why we call him barber black sheep.

Good story there John.
I nearly had tears in me eyes..

Hey Johnboy,you being a mountain man and working on the retirement plan I would of thought the dangly bits would of shrunk up abit or was the tide in really high over there on there thrones???

This is a great story, Johnboy. I'm glad you got to meet what many of us consider the "real" America, some of the folks in the Heartland. Many of us have our roots in that area, and I can imagine the reception you got.

Your tale got me to thinking about school bus riding in rural america, and wondering if it was the same in other parts of the world. I thought about the busses we rode, and whatever became of them; surely gone to the scrapper, of course. So you have a true piece of history; maybe not world shaking, but more important for what it represents. I thought about the old late forties White based bus that we rode forty miles to school, or sometimes the early fifties International; that was back in the mid to late fifties, same time frame your bus is from. The driver lived near the far end of the route, and kept the bus at his/her house overnight, picked up the first kid very early in the morning, and headed east up the valley, gathering kids from five to eight different small towns and communities. We had to be at the general store, a mile walk, by no later than 0545; by the time I got dropped off after football practice after school, it was onto 1830 or 1900. Our regular route was one of three similar ones, and it was always a bit of fun rivalry between the three busses when they all came to the main highway at the same time. The kids that got picked up from that point on, the next twenty miles to school never knew just which bus would stop for them - usually the first one in the parade, then they would "leap frog", and the next one would gather the next bunch, and so on. The bus that took the athletes home after practice was one of the three, and they rotated the busses so the drivers all could get their turn in the bucket, so to speak; the other two would have to spread the load of the three morning busses between the two going home in the afternoon. All in all, a very interesting way of life, and one that still exists in some rare parts of our country even today.

Oh, yeah!! I want to know who you're callin' a kid, thank you very much. My white whiskers and gray hair usually get me the "old guy" title.

Thanks Rrumbler, the 'Heartland' folks we met were truly amazing and genuine people.
Here in New Zealand we have a preconceived idea of America and Americans; gleaned from television shows and the movies...and it's not really very complimentary...you come across as loud, brash, and, very often, stupid.
The reality is quite different.
We found the average American to be a thoughtful, kind, and caring sort of bloke.
It was actually humbling that total strangers would go out of their way to make us feel welcome and to help in any way they could...something we just didn't expect.
You're an amazing bunch of people; and I'm very pleased to have met you.
Thank-you.

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Hey Johnboy,you being a mountain man and working on the retirement plan I would of thought the dangly bits would of shrunk up abit or was the tide in really high over there on there thrones???

The tide in their 'thrones' is really really high.
Where we have three to four inches of water in the bottom, their water level is three to four inches from the top.
So if you're not used to it, yes; your dangly bits do take a swim.
Gross.
Where we use perhaps a half a gallon per flush, they would use about four.
So, when you flush, the water level rises before it subsides.
Gross.

There's an outfit over there called 'Loves' that has shops all over the place.
It was in one of these places I struck a toilet that was somehow flushed by a pressure switch under the seat...so if you wriggled a bit it flushed automatically.
Disconcerting.
An experience you don't want to go through.
I didn't enjoy it.

Originally Posted by johnboy

Thanks Rrumbler, the 'Heartland' folks we met were truly amazing and genuine people.
Here in New Zealand we have a preconceived idea of America and Americans; gleaned from television shows and the movies...and it's not really very complimentary...you come across as loud, brash, and, very often, stupid.
The reality is quite different.
We found the average American to be a thoughtful, kind, and caring sort of bloke.
It was actually humbling that total strangers would go out of their way to make us feel welcome and to help in any way they could...something we just didn't expect.
You're an amazing bunch of people; and I'm very pleased to have met you.
Thank-you.

So well said and so true thank you John. Sadly that is /was my thoughts of America and it's people until I found this site and became friends with so many of you people. We seem to get only what the gossiped magazines tell us and that is mostly how screwed up the rich and so called famous people are resulting in me tarring everybody with the same brush,sorry..