School Buses

We see those orange buses everywhere during the pickup or bring the kids home, hours. In fact, all of us have had to wait patiently in our cars, while the bus door opens, burps a bit and empties out a load of kids! I pity the driver during the ride to or from school. It’s gotta be noisy!  Yet, each parent anxiously waits for their little ones to come out of that bus. School is over for another day.

That is today. It wasn’t that way in my little northern Minnesota town. Remember I’m 92 years young now. I lived in town and had to walk about a mile to the outskirts of town where the school was. I felt a little jealous when the school bus came into the school’s driveway and let the kids out. The bus was so neat. Why couldn’t we have a bus too? The bus was pulled by two horses. It didn’t have any windows, just canvas squares that you could roll up or down, and it had a coal-burning stove inside. It had wheels when the weather was good. But when it snowed, as it did most of the school year, it had sled runners.

My brother and I waited for the days we could go out in the country on the bus to meet Mom and Dad who were out there at a Ladies aid, or spinning bee and quilting party. You see, my Dad was the pastor of the church and went to all meetings. Sonny and I were happy to ride the bus and join in with the fun and food! Sometimes I went on the bus to stay overnight with my friend. I just loved to ride on that school bus! The kids didn’t complain either. After all, it was warm inside with the glowing fire in the coal burning stove!

There was a picture of a school bus like ours in an old magazine I was looking at the other day, and memories of riding on that old bus just flowed through my old brain, I wonder if memories like these aren’t a gift God gives to us old people!