A Bus Driver's Memoir
an excerpt

Introduction:
Now that this song is stuck in your mind for the next 3 ½ hours, you know what goes through this bus drivers mind every afternoon as I approach what some affectionately refer to as the ‘big yellow dog’ or ‘Grover’ on that name tag on the front passenger side and rear driver side bumper so that when I pull out in front of somebody they know who to name about when they call in their complaint to dispatch. To the more technical and studious, it’s known as bus 524.

I whistle this tune, ‘the wheels on the bus…’ out loud nearly every day school is in session. Now School bus driving is not my bread and butter job, it’s more like what I do for fun. You read that right; it’s what I do for fun. I’ve learned that it takes a special person to drive a school bus and actually enjoy it. Some might say I need therapy, I say bus driving is therapy. This doesn’t mean that every day on the bus is enjoyable however. Let me explain. For me, bus driving is like looking out into a brave new world and looking back, in the mirror, and seeing an entire generation of students who are on the brink of becoming independent contributors to society. Don’t hear me wrong, they’ve been independently contributing to society ever since they insisted their parents buy them the right kind of pants with the rip in the thigh right about there, but I’ll explain that in greater detail later on in my memoirs.

Right now let me introduce myself; my name is Shadrach Spurgeon Miles. My parents named me after two historical influencers. Do you recall Shadrach from the story of three bold teenagers in the Bible? Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, refused to bow down to the peer pressure of their day. My second name Spurgeon because of the influence this preacher in Europe had to lead people to the truth. Someone could argue that with a name like Shadrach Spurgeon that I would without question become a great preacher or leader of a great nation. But with a sir name like Miles, why not be a bus driver? For the most part, to the students that ride bus 524, I’m known as Bus Driver. In a world where titles are everything, my title has become my name. Medical doctors are give the prestigious letter DR in front of their name and then various other prestigious letters like MD. A nurse will earn the right to have these letters RN or CNA to go with their names. Me, I have a license with the letters CDL, P, and SB all listing the specialized privileges of having a Commercial Drivers License, with Passenger and School Bus endorsements.

I invite you to take a look inside the reflections of a bus driver’s memoir, a rare and often overlooked glimpse in the rear view mirror of the future. The names of the students on bus 524 have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent; however, I don’t know how many of them are all that innocent.