Yes actually.
Bus driver decides to teach kids a lesson about standing up in the bus. He lost his job and has been charged with THIRTY counts of misdemeanor child abuse.
I mean, I remember our bus driver doing the same thing when we got a bit rowdy. Of course that was the best part of 4 decades ago, and there were no cameras.
Me too. In fact I remember smacking my face on the metal hand rail across the top of the seat back in front of me when it happened. Anyone remember the Crown buses in California back in the 80s
There was a deep bump and hill on our bus route. I remember the speedup and that roller-coaster floating moment at the end when he would speed up. I wonder if he would have gotten in trouble for it.
We had one that came up in winter when the ground froze. My best friend and I, the last two on the bus, would run to the back seat so we could get launched. The driver usually made sure she hit the bump.
Dammit I don’t have any bus stories.
All my bus stories make me wonder why the driver didn’t ram us all into a tree.
Yep, in all my school bus stories the stupid motherfucker is me.
All my school bus stories are from riding the city bus to HS. I could have walked (did, once or twice) but three miles was a bit much. The only story that comes to mind is when Katrina came to the stop one morning and said, “Ancient Chinese proverb: man standing on corner with hands in pockets just feeling nuts.”
When I was in fifth grade, we had a field trip to the circus - three buses full of ten year olds. On the way home, there was an accident between the last two buses - I was on the third bus. Apparently the second bus had stopped to let a kid off outside of town and the trailing bus’s driver was blinded by the setting sun or something and slammed into the back of the other bus. It was chaos. All the seat backs collapsed and everyone went flying forward. I hit the seat in front of me and had the wind knocked out of me. There were a few kids who got their noggin’s knocked around and had to get stitches. I think the driver had some broken ribs. So it wasn’t tragic on an epic level, but according to the rumors going around at school the next week there were lost eyeballs, bones sticking out, tsunami’s of blood, horror, terror and apocalypse.
I used to drive Crown busses in the 80s. The fun one was the one I trained in. It was a 1955 Crown with a four speed manual, double clutch, and no power steering. We called it “Strongarm Steering”. Oh, and the heater didn’t get warm for about half an hour until it put out a piddling little trickle just out of the front console.
Those cool fun bumps in the road are even more fun when you’re the driver. Keep in mind that you’re sitting in front of the front axle at the end of the lever. (There’s got to be a better word than “lever”. Moment arm?)
Where I grew up in Connecticut, the school buses were manufactured by Blue Bird. No idea why I remember that. And one bus driver was studying to become a paramedic or EMT so he showed us gory photos from one of the textbooks he was using.
He sounds like a fun bus driver!
Yeh, I’m weird that way.
Because you were always expecting them to be full of Girl Scouts?
I have no clue where you are getting that from.
For any who have traveled throughout Latin America, it’s always funny to see an old school bus from the US, often with the name of the school (district) still painted on the side.
They’re worth their weight in gold down there, and the bootstrap mechanics can keep them running forever.
Stereotypically, some are decked out in really fantastic ways, but others look pretty much like they looked when you last stepped off of them at school … many moons ago.
One other interesting tidbit: average heights in much of Latin American are less than average US heights, so the seating – originally spaced for school kids – doesn’t need to be altered in their new Latin American service areas.
Meaning: my 6’2" frame suffered on quite a few long Latin American bus rides 
Oh, sorry, I got confused. Bluebirds were with Camp Fire, not Girl Scouts.
“Bluebirds” used to be the name for young kids in the Camp Fire Girls program. (An organization very similar to Girl Scouts.)
(Drats, ninja’d!)
I used to “surf” on the bus: I’d stand in the aisle and try to stay standing, while the driver tried to make me fall. Which was pretty stupid of both of us, but to be fair, I was 12 years old.