The wheels on the bus go round and round, but these passengers were in for a bumpy ride.
The Quiet Type Commands Respect
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“His name was Leroy. This was in high school. This ride or die dude would never speak. He pulled up in his bus, opened the swing arm, glared at us, waited, closed the swing arm. Waited. Once we were seated he would drive. Not a word, ever. He let us get away with pretty much anything.
What finally broke him was a fight. Leroy pulled his bus over and got out of his seat. Standing In the aisle Leroy said, ‘That’s enough!’ The entire bus went silent.
Leroy was the man.”
Fireworks And Smoke Bombs Don’t Belong On A Bus
“We had senior kids setting off smoke bombs and fireworks on the bus. Every year, for a month before and a month after Halloween.
A smoke bomb even landed on me and burned my skirt through once.
When the bus drivers told them off, they used to just swear and act like they owned the place.
One day, we had a bus driver who just drove the bus to the police station when that stuff started, and a few of the kids who had been throwing the fireworks were crying when they got taken off the bus by police. The buses had CCTV too, so they couldn’t even deny it.
I was so glad when my older sister started driving and I could get lifts with her instead of going on the bus.”
The Crazy Driver Helped Them Catch Air
“My bus driver from age 4 through about 12 was absolutely crazy.
This one road that we went up was a big long hill that ended in a cul de sac, so we would go all the way up and then circle back the same way we came. On the way down the hill on the way back, there was this bump in the road that would get really bad if it was cold and there was water frozen under it, so during the winter, we’d beg her to hit the bump so we could get some air. She wouldn’t say yes every day, but when she did, she would speed down the whole hill, and when we hit the bump, I swear, kids would literally hit the ceiling.
I have such a distinct memory of turning around after impact and seeing a kid’s back hit the top of the bus. She still has her job and is driving buses to this day.”
He Was Kind Of Like A Guardian Angel
“I have two stories. In middle school, my bus once caught on fire a block away from the school. It was a tiny one but enough to call the firefighters. We all piled off and watched them do their thing. They brought a second bus. That one also caught on fire. Eventually, we were brought a third bus 30 minutes later. This was all during the winter and we weren’t allowed to walk back to the school because of ‘safety reasons.’ Never understood why it was safer to have kids standing outside in winter next to a bus on fire than to walk them a block back to the school.
The other time, I was in 1st grade. My bus driver was a crazy nice guy. He knew us all. One day, my aunt, who always picked me up, wasn’t there at the stop. He said that I could stay on the bus and we would drive back after the route was finished. Maybe she was just late. We drove back and she still wasn’t there. He asked me which house was mine. He drove us there and parked his bus. We rang the bell a bunch and threw small rocks at her window. Nothing. Her car was there, though, so it was very weird. My friend’s mom drove by and saw us. She offered to take me to her house so I could call my parents and stay there for a while even though it was her birthday. The bus driver left and said don’t worry, she’s probably just asleep.
Turns out she was eternally asleep and had a brain aneurysm earlier in the day. I’ll never forget that day or that nice driver, though, who wanted to make sure I was safe before he left. He even made sure to look out for me for the rest of the year. Great guy.”
Riding With The Dogs
“My bus was shared by about five different schools. When it came to spring break, parent/teacher conferences, exam half-days, etc., schools didn’t always match up. This left half the usual riders (or sometimes only one school) on the bus. Our number on the bus would go from full capacity to 15 or so, giving us a lot of time left over. On holidays, when one or more of the schools were off, we’d still have to get picked up at our usual times. Mine was 5:30 am and everyone who went to a school that didn’t have a holiday would be on the bus before well before 6:30 am, leaving an hour before we were supposed to be dropped off at school. She’d pull into the gas station, everyone would hop off and make a mad dash over to the Icee machine or candy section or grab a soft drink. She’d give us 10-15 minutes to buy whatever we wanted then everyone hopped back on the bus.
The afternoon was the fun part. If the bus was less than half full, she’d bring her 90lb+ dog who’d jump around the seats visiting with people. One time she got a new puppy and we passed him around, taking turns spending time with him and telling him how much of a cutie he was. That was hands-down the best bus ride ever.
Looking back, she could have gotten into a TON of trouble. Everyone kept their mouth shut, even when they knew they wouldn’t be on the bus to enjoy the moment. They’d have their day of fun eventually during the school year.
From Hero To Bigger Hero
“One time, this kid Dana, who looked identical to Donkeylips from Salute Your Shorts, was dared to drink an entire, room temperature, 2-liter bottle of Coke before we got to his stop.
This kid chugged the entire bottle down like an absolute champion. At almost the instant his face could form a smug grin of satisfaction from a job well done, he proceeded to barf a borderline fountain of foamy sticky soda all over two dozen terrified kids on the bus. It was as if his entire stomach was filled with rolls of Mentos, which was possible considering the candy was at its commercial peak at the time.
I mean, the force of this thing could have put out a house fire. His arch reached over like four rows of seats and was sprayed wildly back and forth like a diabetic sprinkler system as he struggled to reign control from this carbonated demonic nightmare.
The bus driver had to stop the bus to attend to the frightened children and made a short but sincere effort to pat dry those poor souls caught in ground zero with government-grade paper towels. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m afraid I may never again.
Well done, Dana.”
BUSTED!
“A friend of mine, when we were like thirteen/fourteen, threw his orange peel and a small folder out the top floor window of a double-decker. Unbeknownst to him, a police riot van was underneath and they had hit their windscreen. Two of the officers, dressed in riot gear, stopped the bus, stormed in and started fully SCREAMING, no holding back, until my friend stepped forward and admitted the blame. They seemed unhinged, roaring at us relentlessly with threats of prosecution. Turns out their bark reflected their bite, as the police ended up making an official complaint to the school and my friend got expelled for it.”
He Made Sure The Punishment Fit The Crime
“I drove a school bus for students who were in the juvenile court system. They had been expelled from every standard school in the district and attended classes at Juvie. They had been through six bus drivers in the first four weeks of school when I received this school as my first assignment (started 2 weeks prior). I am a retired Greyhound Driver, so their stuff wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. They thought they had run off the other drivers so I would just be next if they messed with me. There were only 12 students, but because of their school, it took about three hours to drop them off all over town. The general rule is, when you pick up students in the AM, you start at the student farthest from the school and work your way there. In the PM, you drop off the closest first.
The two students that should have been dropped first were the biggest smart-alecs. They would throw stuff, scream and swear, then laugh that they were getting off and too bad for me. I told them to clean up their torn-up paper, they laughed and swore at me. I followed the procedure and wrote them up to their principal (this meant nothing, they are already expelled, what else can they do?)
So, the next day, I loaded the students and they started their nonsense, and I drove the morning route home, ie: farthest kid 1st. Man, they started screaming. ‘I’m gonna call my momma,’ ‘I’m gonna get you fired.’ I laughed. I told them their momma would appreciate that I kept them supervised for an extra two hours.
Every time one of them acted up, they were last to get off. If they complained about turning the radio on, they got Dr. Laura or Sean Hannity. THEY STOPPED THEIR NONSENSE IN A WEEK.”
He Made A Total Blotto Move
“The bus driver when I was in early grade school was named Ross. My neighborhood was the first stop in the mornings, so we were always the first people on the bus. One day, he picked us up and somehow forgot about all the other stops (there was 10-15 total). He got like a block away from the school when he realized there were only like 8 kids on the bus. He turned around and went back through every stop, but all the other kids had already gotten rides with their parents because we were over 30 minutes behind schedule by this point. We ended up being almost an hour late to school.
As a kid, it was hilarious.
As an adult, I think Ross was on something.”
Turning The Tables On The Class Bully
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“Some kid in the back of the bus was being harassed by his bully. My school district didn’t really do anything about bullies. The kid being bullied was sitting three to a seat with his legs in the aisle, and the bully was sitting by one of his friends in the aisle across from the kid he was messing with. The bully decided to start pushing the kid’s leg. Before it was verbal, but now it was physical. The kid told the bully to stop. Bully mocked him and did it again. The kid then punched the bully in the nose, breaking it and causing this huge amount of blood to leak from it.
By now, the bus had stopped at some bus stop. The kid got his stuff and got off at the bus stop, which was a few ahead of his own. The second he got off, he started running, going a different route to his house. The bus driver was unaware of what happened until someone yelled for the bus driver to call someone because the bully’s nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. So she called someone while the bully was calling his mom, crying.
Eventually, the police showed up with his mom and the principal. Other kids had called their parents because, at this point, we’d been at a standstill for 30+ minutes. We didn’t know who called the police. So they, along with the principal, were asking who hit the bully and for them to confess. We were all like, ‘We don’t know.’ Of course, we did know but why would we tell on our hero? The principal and police were talking and they thought the kid was still on the bus. We then said, ‘Oh, he got off. We don’t know where he went or who he was.’ The principal and police looked at the bus driver, who shrugged because she didn’t realize what was going on until it was too late. We spent two hours on that hot bus because of it but I couldn’t even be mad. My middle school bus was wild.”
The Bus Driver Made His Day
“When I was in 6th grade, I moved from a really small town where I could walk to school every day, to a much larger one where I had to ride the bus. I was having trouble finding my way around the school during the first week and ended up running very, very late to catch the bus at the end of the day. I was beating myself up about the fact that I was going to have to call one of my parents, who would have to leave work early to pick me up. But, when I got outside, the bus was pulled right up to the doors waiting for me. The bus driver knew I had been on the bus that morning and verified with my brother that I was supposed to get on the bus to go home, so he waited. I know it seems really insignificant but, with all the stress and anxiety I was feeling trying to settle into a new house, new city, and a new school it made a lasting impression on me. Thank you, Ron.”
A Disgusting Admission
“This is my most memorable moment, period, not just on the bus.
I had consumed lots of coffee the night before, trying to stay awake and study for a test. As I got on my bus the next morning, the runs start to hit me. This was nothing I had ever experienced before. About 10 minutes into my 50-minute bus ride, I was starting to sweat. Then panic set in. I tried making eye contact with my bus driver through that front mirror. Maybe he’d see my distress, maybe he’d pull over and I could release my stink at Burger King. Nope
I ended up squatting over my paper lunch bag and taking a massive dump in it, all while sobbing and staring at the back of a girl who sat in the seat in front of me. Afterward, I was so flustered that I just buckled the bag next to me for the rest of the ride. It was a low point in my life.
A few months later, I did it again.”
Please Keep Your Arms, Feet, And HAIR Inside The Vehicle
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“In grade school, a girl with really long hair was sitting next to an open window and her hair got snagged by a tree limb. It ripped a chunk of scalp off her head about the size of a tennis ball.
The doctors let it heal up and she had surgery later to stretch her scalp to cover it. it ended up looking like a T-shaped scar on the top right corner of her head. you’d never notice it unless she parted her hair to show you.
Also, someone later that day ended up finding the chunk of her scalp and hair still tangled on the tree branch, but it was well after she went to the hospital so they didn’t try to sew it back on.”
His Rebellious Act Landed Him In Jail
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“On the way back from a field trip to the fire station, some kid stole some trauma shears. I was his assigned buddy for the day and we had to sit together. He showed them to me and I told him he’d better throw them away before he got back to school. He spun them around his finger and flung them out the window of the bus doing about 45 mph.
They stuck 2 inches deep in the right thigh of a morbidly obese, middle-aged woman. He looked at me with a face that said: ‘How am I going to explain this to my cellmate?’
The bus started slowing down, we’d stopped at a red light. This woman moved like a linebacker towards us, screaming, ‘Stop the bus, those kids done stabbed me!’ She caught the freaking bus and started beating on the door, screaming, ‘Call the police and the ambulance!’
The bus driver opened the door, she got on with blood pooling by her foot, screaming and pointing at kids who might have stabbed her.
So the cops showed up. My assigned friend was ghost pale and sweating bullets. They didn’t even need to ask questions, they just took him away in handcuffs. As he was being hauled off, he pointed at me and said, ‘He told me to throw them away!’
I yelled back, ‘I meant in a trashcan, you idiot.’ I heard he got six months in juvie. Never saw him again.”
The Best Introduction Ever
“In 1995, my family moved away from where I grew up to another city when my dad changed jobs. I had just graduated from middle school, so I was starting high school in a new city – no friends and this high school was four or five times the size of the one I was going to go to.
We lived on the outskirts, so I rode the yellow bus.
The very first day I got on the bus, there were only four other guys and one girl on the bus. One of them immediately struck up a conversation – I could tell he was a high energy and loud guy… quite the opposite from me.
Him:’Hey! What’s your name!’
Me: ‘My name is William.’
Him: ‘William? That name’s too long. We need to give you a nickname!’
In my head, I was fearing the worst. This guy was going to label me with an insulting nickname on my first day of high school where I knew nobody. The next few years could be VERY long.
Luckily, his intent was genuine and he came up with the nickname: ‘Will.’
He then pointed to a guy sitting quietly across the aisle and said, ‘That there is D. He’s my brother. I think you guys are in the same grade. You guys should be friends!’
D looked up, with a big smile with crooked teeth, a weird pair of thick glasses. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ He was tall for a teenager, pushing 6’2″.
We struck up a little conversation and discovered we had many things in common: we were both into RPGs, MTG and things of the such; we were also both the youngest child of three boys. We related a lot. It was instant, we were buddies.
A few months later, my family moved a little further out of town, which put me on a different bus route, but I still attended the same school.
Fast forward to the summer of 1996. I found out that D was moving to a city a few hours away, so that meant my best friend was no longer going to be at the same school as me!
D and I completely lost touch. The internet was in its infancy and not everyone had emails. We did snail mail a little, but that petered out after a few letters.
Several months later, I think it was like April 1997, I got wind that a new kid will be coming to our school in our grade and he would be on our bus route. I knew what this kid was going through, moving to a new town, not knowing anyone. I made it a point that I would be nice to this kid and help him make friends at school.
So the following Monday, the bus took a different turn here and there and we began driving down the street to go pick up this new kid. I looked down the road and saw this tall lanky guy.
As we pulled up closer, it hit me. I knew this guy!
Yup, indeed it was, my best buddy D is back in town!
We were both very excited that a) he was back in town and b) the place he moved to is on the same bus route as me.
Today, D and I are still best buds. He was my best man and I was his best man – we see each other weekly. All of this because his brother gave me a ‘nickname’ and told us we should be friends.
I love you, D!”