Phillips Blackhawks: Memories of Riding the School Bus

#1-09: I rode a bus, but can't remember anything memorable except dodging giant tumbleweeds walking from the stop
and freezing waiting for the bus in winter. Thank goodness they let you wear long pants under your dress until you got to school!

2-09: The bus would not come all the way to our house. The dirt road from the highway was too great a risk of sinking in mud or getting buried in snowdrifts. So our family of eight children hiked half a mile each morning to the highway and stood in the cold waiting for the bus. Phillips built a small shed for the children to stand in to keep out of the wind. I remember clearly that it was hours before dawn, that it snowed at least six days every week, and the wind blew 293 mph. In the afternoons, the bus dropped us off at the same shed. The walk home was twice as far and the journey was uphill both ways. I especially remember the 14 textbooks carried each way and the baritone band instrument hauled home for nightly practice. Graduation meant lots of different things to different people, but I remember it as the end of the bus rides.

3-09: When I was in the first grade, I told my teacher Mrs. Lister that I was going over to my dad's office after school. However I went out to the bus so I could play. In the first grade if you rode the bus, then you had to stay until the last period when everybody was dismissed from class. As you would guess, Mrs. Lister came out and caught me hiding on the bus. Naturally I received some penalty which I do not recall. That was the last time I was able to leave early to go play outside.

1-10: 1980 - I remember one bus trip...football....basketball or track....can't seem to remember....anyway we were all quiet on the bus...Coach Dixon in the front seat ...looked out the window turned around and calmly said to the couple of people behind him (BJP being one of them since Coach Dixon liked to keep him close)...."Hey....look at the Antelope".....Well....that is when Bobby Joe....whose mouth was and still is of legendary status in regards to how much it got him into trouble......Bobby stood up....turned around and in that voice that only Bobby could do SHOUTED...."HEY EVERYBODY.....LOOK AT THE ANTELOPE!!!!"..... everyone looked up....startled out of our travel mode....about the time to see Coach Dixon's clip board bouncing off the back of Bobby Joe's head....."Dammit, Bobby Joe......if I wanted the whole bus to know I would have told them myself".....The bus immediately erupted in laughter....Poor Joe Joe.....I saw the section on JIK........BJP could also have his own section.....I can not count the number of times I witnessed him getting "racked".....amazing