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| Bus 63 |
I rode this bus as a child.
When I was in fourth grade, they offered all of us in the top math class to take the fifth grade diagnostic test to see how well we would score. Three of us scored above 85 I believe on the fifth grade test, which was pretty impressive to be well above passing for the grade higher. The three of us were placed in a fifth grade math class for the rest of the year. Although I could handle it, math class was definitely a challenge that year.
We moved the summer after fourth grade. It was kind of unexpected and on the down low. I never really said goodbye to my friends...kind of slipped away silently. It was also just 15 minutes down the street. Unfortunately, that was enough for me to need to switch schools even though I was in the same district. When I started school that fall, they just gave me the normal schedule for a fifth grader. I was in a fifth grade math class, and it was boring. I don't remember who initiated or what instigated the change, but someone said something to the school which notified them I'd already taken a year of fifth grade math. After some special arrangements were made, I had a personal bus come pick me up at the elementary school about 2 pm everyday and drive me to the middle school for 7th period which was from about 2:40 pm to 3:30 pm. Just for the record, if you think 7 hours of school is long, I endured almost 8 hour school days for an entire year as a fifth grader, starting at 7:45 as an elementary student and ending at 3:30 as a middle school student.
I rode bus number 63. The driver was Mr. Bill. Almost everyday, he would pull the bus up the front of the school, I would notify the secretary that I was leaving, and then hop on to head off to the middle school. He would talk to me and tell me stories, and I would mostly listen as a shy 11 year old. It's from him that I learned about diamond mines in Arkansas. He was shocked I could not recognize Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears in pictures (because I'm pretty sure most 11-year-old girls at the time probably idolized them...). He was the one who told me about the neighborhood being built at the corner of two streets we used to drive by and how there were going to be approximately 200 homes. That neighborhood is now completely built up and over 10 years old. He always had his bus decorated for some occasion or with pictures and passed out candy to all his riders during the holidays, including me. I always got first dibs.
Sometimes, he would have other routes to drive and I would have other buses arranged to pick me up. Those drivers were never quite the same. They just picked me up and dropped me off. I also had to act as a GPS for them when they didn't know the route. So I definitely knew my directions as a child for all the necessary places - like how to get to my next class which happened to be at a different school.
I didn't see Mr. Bill very much after fifth grade. He drove a route for my middle school, (the same school he dropped me off at), but I didn't ride it. There was no bus to our house at the time because we were only 1.8 miles from the school. Sometimes he would see my brother and me walking home because we walked in the same direction his bus pulled out toward, and he would wave at me with both hands away from the steering wheel with big wide eyes and a goofy smile.
When I was in fourth grade, they offered all of us in the top math class to take the fifth grade diagnostic test to see how well we would score. Three of us scored above 85 I believe on the fifth grade test, which was pretty impressive to be well above passing for the grade higher. The three of us were placed in a fifth grade math class for the rest of the year. Although I could handle it, math class was definitely a challenge that year.
We moved the summer after fourth grade. It was kind of unexpected and on the down low. I never really said goodbye to my friends...kind of slipped away silently. It was also just 15 minutes down the street. Unfortunately, that was enough for me to need to switch schools even though I was in the same district. When I started school that fall, they just gave me the normal schedule for a fifth grader. I was in a fifth grade math class, and it was boring. I don't remember who initiated or what instigated the change, but someone said something to the school which notified them I'd already taken a year of fifth grade math. After some special arrangements were made, I had a personal bus come pick me up at the elementary school about 2 pm everyday and drive me to the middle school for 7th period which was from about 2:40 pm to 3:30 pm. Just for the record, if you think 7 hours of school is long, I endured almost 8 hour school days for an entire year as a fifth grader, starting at 7:45 as an elementary student and ending at 3:30 as a middle school student.
I rode bus number 63. The driver was Mr. Bill. Almost everyday, he would pull the bus up the front of the school, I would notify the secretary that I was leaving, and then hop on to head off to the middle school. He would talk to me and tell me stories, and I would mostly listen as a shy 11 year old. It's from him that I learned about diamond mines in Arkansas. He was shocked I could not recognize Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears in pictures (because I'm pretty sure most 11-year-old girls at the time probably idolized them...). He was the one who told me about the neighborhood being built at the corner of two streets we used to drive by and how there were going to be approximately 200 homes. That neighborhood is now completely built up and over 10 years old. He always had his bus decorated for some occasion or with pictures and passed out candy to all his riders during the holidays, including me. I always got first dibs.
Sometimes, he would have other routes to drive and I would have other buses arranged to pick me up. Those drivers were never quite the same. They just picked me up and dropped me off. I also had to act as a GPS for them when they didn't know the route. So I definitely knew my directions as a child for all the necessary places - like how to get to my next class which happened to be at a different school.
I didn't see Mr. Bill very much after fifth grade. He drove a route for my middle school, (the same school he dropped me off at), but I didn't ride it. There was no bus to our house at the time because we were only 1.8 miles from the school. Sometimes he would see my brother and me walking home because we walked in the same direction his bus pulled out toward, and he would wave at me with both hands away from the steering wheel with big wide eyes and a goofy smile.
I haven't seen him in almost 15 years now. Last I heard, he cut his long, wavy, red-orange hair and was moving because he got offered an office job. I was happy for him, but I knew his kids would miss him. He was one of the happiest and kindest people.
But I saw his bus.
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