There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you haven't time to respond to a tug at your pants leg, your schedule is too crowded. Robert Brault

Whats driving a bus like? Seventy of your kids in the back seat going to town. Mr. Brandon

Monday, December 7, 2015

Random Thoughts of a Bus Driver "World Peace"

We live in an amazing world!  Though I do not consider myself to be old, I have had the privilege to have been around a number of years.  In those years I have seen many amazing changes.  I have seen the day when the best thing you could purchase for your child’s education was a set of encyclopedias that took up substantial amount of space, now we just Google it.  I have watched all three channels on a black and white TV serving as my father’s remote control, now you can miss an hour long program that you wanted to watch on your 72 inch high definition television, because it took so long to go through the nine hundred channels that are available.  As a teacher I have gone home with my hands covered with chalk dust and purple ink from mimeographed papers, to having a printer right in my room and an interactive board that is attached to my computer that will electronically write in any color of my choosing.  As a bus driver I have driven buses that were manual shift, exposed metal bars around the thinly padded seat, and were cold and rattled as you went down the road.  Now my bus has an automatic transmission, air shocks, tented windows, heater and air conditioning front and back, radio, and CD player.  I don’t even have to reach over to open the door for students; I have an air operated door that is activated with a button on the steering wheel.  I wax nostalgic.  This past week I was introduce to what has to be the greatest advancement in the history of the world.  I have in my life visited a number of outhouses.  Many of you know what I speak of.  I have visited one and two holers whose seats were hopefully worn smooth over the years by use so I would not get a splinter.  It was always questionable what you would find in them to “clean” yourself with after the job was finished.  I once used toilet paper in Russia that I believe I got a paper cut from.  My daughter and 5 month old grandson often stay with us during the work week.  With a baby in the house there are numerous diaper changes and with that came the flushable, moist wipes.  That alone should have some recognition.  Then my daughter brought in a device that I believe given time and the right amount of consideration could possible change the course of the world.  It is the right size to hold a package of wipes and then, be still my beating heart, you plug it in and it warms, yes warms the wipes.  Not only are they moist, for a better job, but WARM.  Oh! What a blessed invention to be introduced to in the chilly month of December.  With one of these in every world leaders bathroom how could you not come out with a good feeling toward all mankind.  Forgive me Leonardo da Vinci, move over Thomas Edison, why has this not made world headlines?  I have never been one to spend a lot of time in the royal chamber but in the future if my family needs me I can tell them where to look first.  Who knows I may have decided what room to move the set of encyclopedias to. 

1 comment:

  1. Very well said. I was so looking forward to my annual step raise, in spite of the fact it would be less than $50 a month. Boy was I disappointed when after taxes and an increase in insurance premium, I have 8 extra dollars to play with monthly. Basically, my salary now is equivalent to my salary when I left the corporate world in 1990, 25 years ago.

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