Confessions of a Bus Rider (With No Choice)

The Playground Divide

You’re in elementary school, your alarm is going off, and you slowly crawl out of bed and start getting ready for school. There is a sense of urgency because you need to do everything and be out at the bus stop before you miss it. 

The ride is fine, but as you pull in you see cars starting to line up and feel envious of the kids who got to sleep in and chill in the quiet of their own car.

On the flip side, you 100% KNEW those same kids were laughing at your and looking down at you and all the kids like the peasants you were.

Nobody made these social status rules, it’s just the way it was. 

The Stigma That Felt Way Bigger Than It Was

Why did we feel this way? After all, riding the bus wasn’t THAT bad. It’s because we felt like we were missing something. We knew, for a fact, since they got driven to school they had an easier life than us. 

They got to sleep in.

They probably got a cooked breakfast.

They could adjust the temperature in the car.

Things were just better for them

Which… looking back is an absolutely instance thing to think about. Was there some kind of social divide? Maybe? 

It’s still something that kids shouldn’t be thinking or even worrying about.

Plot Twist: I Didn’t Have a Choice

Maybe—for me— it’s because I didn’t even have the option of being driven to school or riding the bus. After all, my mom WAS the bus driver. I was up early and on the bus, ready to go to school, whether I liked it or not.

On the plus side it made it a lot more difficult to be late to the bus stop or miss the bus entirely.

The Part No One Talks About: The Bus Was Actually Fun

I don’t know if anyone truly remembers the bus, but it was chaos in a Twinkie on wheels. Kids yelling, spitballs in the backseats (another story for another time), and no cameras to see who was doing what—because it was the ‘90s and technology like that was insane.

There was one personal advantage to my mom being the driver. I could have WHATEVER seat I wanted (I also got to take a decent nap before the first stop—so two things?)

Just like teaching, driving a bus takes a special kind of person. One that won’t put up with the B.S. of kids not following the rules. This was Mrs. Hall in a nutshell.

There was always music, end-of-the-year parties, and a whistle for when things got too out of hand. No—literally. You got too rowdy and she would blast that whistle as loud as she could to get your attention.

R.I.P. the eardrums of the kids in the front seat who probably never passed the hearing tests at school.

All this to say, everything I thought was “bad” about the bus wasn’t actually that bad.

Unironically my one of my mom's favorite South Park characters was Mrs. Crabtree — I don't know if it was because the shared commonality of driving the bus, or because by the end of the day, doing all of her runs, she became Mrs. Crabtree.

The Hidden Community Car Riders Never Saw

Riding the bus was a look into a community, and my mom was the mayor—well... maybe the HOA President. She made the rules, kept things organized, and made sure everyone made it to their destination as safely as possible.

The bus community was just that—a community. It was a shared experience that I got to go through with my friends on a daily basis. Some days were more fun than others, but still something the car riders would never get to experience.

I can’t attest to other buses, and I don’t know if it’s because it was my mom and she was an all star bus driver, but the bus ride was an experience that I would totally do again.

Some families had the option to choose between car rider and bus rider.I didn’t — and honestly, I wouldn’t change it.

I got the chaos, the community, and the front-row seat to watching my mom turn a yellow bus into something that actually felt like it mattered.