Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Veteran Bus Drivers Still Going Strong After All of These Years

With 26 years each of safely driving Fayette's students to and from school, veteran bus drivers Ruth Ellison and Diane Vaughan have seen a lot of changes come and go but they vow that their love for transporting the county's children will never change.

Although during their 26-year stint they have seen many drivers pass through the school system's transportation department, both Ellison and Vaughan are quick to say that the word "retirement" is not in their current vocabulary. "We are just like a family here. Everyone will pull together when times are really tough and I can't think of a place I'd rather be. I plan to drive a bus until I reach 30 years and then I have no plans to retire," says Vaughan with Ellison echoing her comments saying "It gets in your blood and you just want to get up every morning and drive."

Ellison and Vaughan started their career with the Fayette County School System's transportation department in 1976. With each being mother of five children, both wanted a job outside of the home that was flexible enough to allow them to be home during the day.

"At that time it was very difficult to find a job with those hours. Back then you just couldn't beat being a bus driver," says Ellison.

When they look back at what some might consider the "good ole days," these two veterans say that they wouldn't trade the present for anything. Vaughan remembers the two days of sink or swim training that was given to drivers back then as opposed to the extensive training they must go through today before driving a bus on their own. Vaughan says the bus driver candidates met with a trainer in the morning and was placed on a bus that very afternoon. If they were able to maneuver it, then they got to drive a route the next day with a trainer and if all went well, they were own their own.

Not only was the training an experience in itself, but just handling the bus took a lot of strength. All buses had manual transmissions requiring drivers to shift gears as they went down the road. When they got to their stops, they had to push and pull on a lever to open and close the bus' heavy doors. And they did this for a whopping $6.50 per route or $13 per day.

"Things sure were different back then. We didn't even have radios in the buses. If you broke down you had to walk to the nearest phone or sit in the bus and hope someone would drive by and offer to help," says Vaughan who remembers being stuck on Robinson Road and walking a mile to find a telephone. Now buses have automatic transmissions and most are equipped with automatic door openers. Also, radios are in every bus and 911 monitors drivers in case of an emergency.

Things were very different back then indeed. Ellison remembers when bus drivers could stop and let students go into a store and, on the last day of school, drivers were allowed to pull off the side of the road so students could have water