Thread: Need help on bus origins.

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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 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..

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.

Johnboy,
Thank you for the heartfelt comments about your trip. Having grown up in SW Missouri on the border with both Arkansas and Oklahoma it makes me feel proud that your experience with the real people of America was a good experience. Unfortunately I believe that we all too often form judgements from what we see in the biased news or worse, on prime time TV.

Also, your observations on "high tide" in our "loos" made me laugh! The auto flush mechanisms can indeed be a surprise if you move the wrong way - they are triggered by an infra red proxmity switch, and the idea is that as you rise to depart the throne the flush happens automatically. Sorry you got surprised by Lowe's auto flushes

My first real experience with Americans,was in the mid eighties,in the South Island,on holiday..We met up with a hard case retired/semi retired bunch from[if my memory serves me well]the Sun Valley Caravan Club,probably Arizona..they were cruising the country in hired RVs,and having a ball..Real neat people,wish we could have spent more time with them,,,and then a few days later,the other side of the American tourist...dont go there...
Next time Was in 1991,when I spent three weeks in California,with a brief trip to Las Vegas,and back to LA..All real nice folks,and I hope we can scrape some cash together soon,so Lynda and I can do another trip..This time,it will be well OUT of L.A...Wanna see the real side of your great[big]country..
Yeah,your dunnies scared me too,,I thought there must have been a blockage..Stood back from the pan and yelled out for my friend...Oyy,your dunnies blocked..

Originally Posted by lamin8r

My first real experience with Americans,was in the mid eighties,in the South Island,on holiday..We met up with a hard case retired/semi retired bunch from[if my memory serves me well]the Sun Valley Caravan Club,probably Arizona..they were cruising the country in hired RVs,and having a ball..Real neat people,wish we could have spent more time with them,,,and then a few days later,the other side of the American tourist...dont go there...
Next time Was in 1991,when I spent three weeks in California,with a brief trip to Las Vegas,and back to LA..All real nice folks,and I hope we can scrape some cash together soon,so Lynda and I can do another trip..This time,it will be well OUT of L.A...Wanna see the real side of your great[big]country..
Yeah,your dunnies scared me too,,I thought there must have been a blockage..Stood back from the pan and yelled out for my friend...Oyy,your dunnies blocked..

Robin, my advice (for what it's worth,) would be to fly direct to the East coast, hire a small two-berth camper, (less parking hassles than with a bigger one,) and meander your way back across to the West coast; avoiding the large cities where ever possible.
I found the cities claustraphobic due to the sheer height of the buildings.
(Mind you, I get that in NZ too...you get that when you've lived in the bush as long as I have...)
And a GPS is a must-have.
The place is HUGE!

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.

Thanks for that observation John, I think we don't always appreciate how pervasive an image our misdirected (as a nation) adulation for celebrity causes. We suffer from widely broadcast images such as this:


Given your recent discovery of the "real" American spirit you might enjoy an astute British citizens observations. You can access each streaming commentary by clicking the "permalink" at the bottom of each Monday through Friday segment:
http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/

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.