Ron the Bus Driver

Bus drivers were always a kind of person that seemed to be down on his or her luck. Ive seen a lot of them while I was in grade school and high school. Then there was Ron the Bus Driver who actually followed me from grade school to high school. Maybe they used the same company. Maybe that company serviced the north shore of Chicago.
The first time I saw Ron was during a snowstorm. The lady that used to drive the bus, who looked like Rosie Karen Walkers Maid from Will and Grace, was fired the week before. We were all on the bus almost at the school in a major intersection when suddenly waiting out in the middle on a green to take a left, she suddenly went for it and turned too wide and we hit a streetlight and took it down. It stopped all traffic and the cops were there. I dont know what the deal was, if something distracted her or if she had a few drinks before work, but that was it for Rosie.
So it was December 1981. Tommy 2 Tone was on the radio (8675309) and MTV just launched 3 months before. I was in 8th grade. That day, there was a Lake Effect Snowstorm. Lake Michigan sometimes provides large amounts of sudden moisture and it then dumps that all over the west side of the lake in blizzard like conditions. So I am sitting in my last class of the day in Sister Bennidicta's class. I was near the upper left hand corner of the class, in the left row. (Our classrooms had the school desks in classic rows, perpendicular to the front of the class and teachers desk. Like any old pic of a classroom youve ever seen from the 50s or 60's.) The kid sitting in front of me was also looking out the window at the extreme snow falling. We just couldn't believe it. We started talking a bit how maybe tomorrow will be a snow day. It had started snowing two hours ago and it already looked like a half foot on the huge playground below.
The playground below went all the way out and slightly up, then down to the street. It was large as it serviced several buildings, the church, the school, and the convent where the nuns lived.
The snow started to taper off and we could see some of the school buses were coming up the playground from the road and parking side by side waiting for school to get out.
Then we saw this other school bus come rapidly up the playground and actually look like it was accelerating. This caught our attention as me and the kid weren't paying attention to the nun at the front of the class, we were sitting at our seats looking left out the window. The bus suddenly cranked its wheel hard to the left wheel lock and we watched a full size 72 max seat bus doing doughnuts in the parkinglot, swinging around in semi controlled circles. We could not believe we were seeing this and we called over the other kids to the window. We watched as this bus would accelerate, then crank the wheel with its back end sliding around in 180 degree arcs while the rear wheels were spinning. We were all laughing pressed up against the window. There he goes again. After a spin out, he would recover, get some speed up again then swing it the other way. At this time the nun was also at the window. And as we watched, she left the classroom and went out there without a coat. She went out onto the parkinglot and observed first hand another doughnut. Then she approached the bus and then proceeded to chew out the driver. And thats the first time I saw Ron the Bus Driver.

Tomorrow: Ron breaks all the Rules

Tradinginsider