Monday, September 8, 2008

School buses. A rant.

For every person in this world who is running a little bit late to work, what is the worst thing that you fear? Is it the red lights or car accidents and rubberneckers? No. It is school buses. Why? Because in case you haven't got the memo, school buses are the single most important entity on this earth. Do you disagree? Well so do I, but talk to any school bus driver and they will tell you differently.




If you have taken a school bus in recent years, or if you can dredge up old memories of school bus trips of old then you know exactly what I am talking about. School bus drivers seem to think that they have been entrusted with matters of top-level national security. They make a show of talking over their radios to the other drivers, and they fiddle importantly with all the lights that deck the outside. In elementary school you most likely had assigned seats which, let's face it, is going just a little bit too far down power trip alley. And during the rides it did not matter if there was a line of cars a quarter mile long, they were a school bus and had the right to do it. They were not only carrying a bus load of children but seemingly the nuclear football as well. Though I never saw any evidence, what else could give someone that amount of self-important pride?

Meanwhile there I am, more often then not when I worked the 3 o'clock shift, stuck behind this leviathan as it stops at every single side street. I didn't matter that I was now late for work, I had to wait my turn and count myself lucky to have sacrificed in service to my country. God forbid you pull over every once in a while and release the dam you have made yourself, no. They are a school bus and they have the right. They do not even try to expedite the process either, they seem to always have all the time in the world. Once the kid is off the bus there is the inevitable lag of 10-15 seconds or so before they get moving again. Ten to fifteen seconds is not a big deal one time, no. But every single street, come on!

Luckily, now as I work at 11am on Saturday mornings, this is no longer a problem for me. But a recurrence this morning brought back all these old bitter feelings.

So there you are...school buses.

5 comments:

Kristina said...

I never took the school bus for the exact reason they you described!

Maybe I'm going down the wrong profession road and should get a job driving school buses if they really all that to do!!!

love you babe!!!

Anonymous said...

Too funny, Nick! And all that keeping of national security, and all for minimum wage! I guess the benefit of being in a job of such important outweighs the lack of wages. Mom

Nicholas M. DiMaio said...

Taking shots of school buses now, Nick? You don't want the Feds beating down your door or worse -- Chris "why don't you take a seat" Hansen.

I had one unstable former 'Nam vet bus driver I once befriended in my day -- I can tell you stories of ol' Ken (stopped the bus to fake vomit in the St. Patrick's parking lot...).

After I left middle school, I heard a rumor he was fired.

Anonymous said...

Nick, thought of your blog yesterday when I was coming home from Ryan's and was behind a school bus! Mom

dave + jess said...

There should be some sort of rule...if your bus is causing a back up of 5 cars or more, you should pull over and let them pass. It'll never happen, but it should be a rule. I wonder if beeping incessantly would do any good?