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.