In the mid 1950s there were six school buses in the county, all owned by farmers or small business owners in Fayetteville.
When I came to town in 1966, there were 11 school buses, ten of them privately owned, one owned by the school board.
In the fall of 2014 there are 254 school buses on the road each day, all owned by the school board.
In talking with one of those privately owned bus owners, Reuben Knowles, he told me that he was responsible for its maintenance and liability insurance.
When asked how much he was paid, he related that he had to deadhead from Fayetteville to Tyrone to pick up his first student. The distance between the towns was at his expense. He was paid thereafter by the number of students, and number of miles he carried them.
He carried the elementary students to Tyrone Elementary, the rest to Fayette County High School in Fayetteville, and then back to his service station in Fayetteville.
His monthly income from all this traveling? All of $300 a month.
Needless to say, the demeanor of bus students today is far different. In the far past, an unruly student knew his Mama would be told and he would get a spanking.
One bus driver today told me a student recently told her he paid her salary, and he could do anything he wanted to and she couldn’t do anything about it.
One interesting tale from that former era; a private bus driver would honk his horn just before approaching the next house.
One morning he kept honking all the way down the road due to the fact that his brakes were out. Thank heavens it was before much traffic here, and he came out on south highway 85 with no problems. He ended up in a ditch near Tom Kerlin Sr.’s garage near Starr’s Mill. The students piled out of the bus, Mr. Kerlin got his tractor, pulled the bus out of a ditch and promptly repaired the brakes. The students all got back on the bus and headed up the road to school.
Buses breaking down are now are almost nonexistent. Hopefully the attitude of some of today’s students will also improve.
