Memories of Riding the School Bus

By Keith Gibson

I remember many mornings back in the 1950s, and early to mid-1960s, leaving for school just before daylight, walking out our front door and down to the river bank where we kept our homemade flatboat. In my mind, I can still see dad building the boat (which was about 14′ long), sawing the “yellow popular” boards, making the gunnels for the sides, and planks for the bottom. The lumber he used was boards he had cut using his sawmill and came from the trees that had grown in the hollow behind our house. But as a kid, the real challenge to me was getting from the house to the boat, paddling across the river, tying the boat up to a tree, and walking up to the bus stop without getting any mud on my clothes and shoes, which was nearly impossible. Many times during the winter months it would be so cold that the boat paddle would stick to your fingers, but if the river froze hard enough we would just walk across to the other side. If the ice wasn’t thick enough to support our weight we had to walk the path down to the Lyburn swinging bridge, cross the bridge to the other side where the school bus picked us up in front of the old Lyburn post office, which was situated at the bottom of Lyburn hill next to route 10. When I crossed the river in our boat I had to walk the railroad track down Lyburn straight stretch to the lower end of Lyburn.

Our bus driver was a lady by the name of Lucille Watts who was a very good bus driver. It would have to snow pretty deep for her not to run. In fact, I remember the bus pulling up with tire chains on the back (dual) wheels. She had a lot of experience driving a school bus though, and in fact, drove the bus when my older brothers and sisters went to school back in the 1940s.

I attended the first and second grade at Lyburn Grade School, a two-room school that taught first and second grade in one room and third through the sixth in the other. In 1956 and 57 we lived within walking distance so I walked to school the first two years and didn’t start riding a school bus until my third year which took me to the new grade school at Earling in 1958.

I attended Logan East Jr. High from 1962 through 1964 and remember watching “Ruff and Reddy” cartoons every morning until the last minute before running out the door, hearing mom griping at me, fearing I was going to miss the school bus. One morning during the ninth grade, we were on our way to school when I got into an argument with the guy sitting beside me. My stomach was sort of queasy that morning so I let the window down. Well….he immediately leaned over and put it back up. I told him I was feeling sort of sick and wanted it down to get some fresh air, and promptly let the window back down. Well…..one thing led to another and we ended up getting into a fight, which consisted more of a pushing match than fighting. That was about the time we heard Lucille yell out “HEY….STOP IT RIGHT NOW!!” Then we felt the bus slowing down and pulling off the road.

One thing you didn’t want, was to be the reason that Lucille pulled the bus over beside the road, and come to a full stop. She was on us like a chicken on a junebug. After she gave us both a good butt chewing she took us on to school and went up and told our principal, A.R. Marushi about it. It wasn’t very long until we heard the dreaded words: “Larry Gibson and Ronald Fry, report to the Principal’s office!!” This happened on a Monday morning. Mr. Marushi gave us both five licks with his paddle that morning and made us come to his office every morning for the rest of the week and get three licks apiece. I laugh when I think about it now, but it sure wasn’t funny at the time. Great memories though.