Went into town this morning and got behind a school bus (actually two, if you count the ones coming the other way). Our subdivision is located out Highway 70 West about a mile from the three way stop, where it intersects with Reservoir Ave. I got behind this bus where it exited the subdivision and entered onto the main highway. It traveled approximately 100 yards to the top of the hill and stopped to pick up a kid. It then turned off the red lights, turned the yellow lights back on, went about 100 feet, turned the red lights back on and stopped to pick up another child. This was repeated about six times in the next 250 yards. There was then a straight stretch where there are no homes for about one-half mile on the right hand side of the road. As we started downhill (there are several homes on the left hand side), another bus was traveling west (opposite me) and it stopped just down the hill from the entrance to Country Club Estates. This was interesting because this was the first time I remember in my sixty-three years (nearly) of existence that I've seen a school bus have to stop for another oncoming school bus. These are the small things in life that you just don't give much thought to unless you witness it. After the oncoming bus picked up it's passengers we headed out again. We arrived at the stoplight at SR 189 (which is now U.S. 431 - an effort to avoid our famous viaduct on old U. S. 431). After we pass through this light, there are a few more houses and a couple of businesses. The bus stopped at nearly every one of the houses.
I couldn't help but think of when I was in school at old CCHS. I can remember maybe two or three days school was cancelled because Mr. (George) Taylor, the superintendent always said he would "only call school off if he wasn't able to get up there himself." Remarkedly, he was "always" able to get up there, and so were we. During my tenure as a student, there was no such thing as a city school bus (much less buses). We got there any way we could. Usually one of the neighborhood "Moms" would haul us up there but it was pretty common to have to walk home, rain, shine or snow. I always surmised that they never trusted us to walk up there and seeing that we got a ride was their way to insure we made it to our classrooms. Getting home didn't seem as important.
We lived on Park Street and the line dividing the school districts was at the interesection of 5th Street and Park. It was such a fine line that the kids who lived on the south side of 5th went to the city schools and those on the north side went to the county schools. We lived on Park, about 40 yards north of the line. My Dad paid $50.00 per kid for tuition for us to go to Central City schools (he didn't have any problem with Muhlenberg Central...it's just that both he and my mother graduated from CCHS and he felt my brother and I needed to do the same). Most of the neighboring kids on my street went to MCHS. The bus picked them up down by Cherry Street (shudders...some of them had to walk two blocks to the bus stop). They also seemed to get out of school every time there was a "heavy dew," which certainly didn't set well with those of us who had to go.
I'm sure we're no different than any other locale in these United States, but it sure seems there's an awful lot of school buses on the roads each morning, both in the cities and on the country roads. One morning I was going to Greenville and passed eleven buses coming from Central City (no one lives on the bypass so they didn't stop out there). I'm sure they were coming from Nelson Creek, Cleaton, Bremen, South Carrollton and other places and not just from Central City. This didn't count the cars I saw with students in them (or I think they were students) and parents shuffling kids to one of the schools. I sure didn't remember seeing that many kids in the world when I was growing up around here. Shoot, I can remember if we could get twenty or thirty of us together at the Youth Center it was a crowd.
I can appreciate the safety the bus routes offer by picking up kids at every driveway but man it sure seems like a lot of stops. The one place you don't want to be in the mornings or afternoons is Reservoir Ave. from about 431, up Ryan Hill to U.S. 62. It takes at least three buses to cover that area and that's just in one direction...three more cover the other way. This keeps kids from having to travel in front of the bus to cross the street. A good idea. It also makes the trip from 431 to 62 take about fifteen minutes and when the bus gets down to 62, if the driver has to turn "left" for any reason, you're really in trouble. That bus will sit at that intersection sometimes ten minutes waiting on an opening and it's not wide enough to pass it on the right hand side. If you ever get jury duty and have to be in Greenville in time for court to start, then don't take that route (this has happened to me more than once).
One of the things I find amazing is how fast the State Police will give you a ticket for not wearing a seat belt (which is a good idea - I always wear mine) but we don't even offer the seat belt option for kids on buses. I'm not sure how it could be effective. The bus drivers sit still pretty much now until the kid finds his/her seat and that takes about 15 or 20 additional seconds after he/she enters the bus. This is for every stop which if the bus has 60 kids on it, adds twenty minutes to the route. Think how much longer it would take if the driver had to sit there until the kid buckled up. It's a problem that maybe someone smarter than I am (if that's even possible) will have to solve.
I'm still trying to figure how to make it to jury duty on time.
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