Down and Out!

This is a 1968 GMC school bus. Think it has seen its final trip? Kinda sad to see it there, rusting in the weeds. We have come such a long way with school buses.

I would imagine that this bus had a stick shift, with the stick protruding from the floor. It probably had steel bars atop each seat, guaranteed to add appointments to the orthodontists' schedules. There was no radio on this bus; if the driver had difficulty, a student would be dispatched to the nearest house to beg the owner to make a phone call.

Wonder how many kids threw up on this bus? How many current Ph. D.'s rode it? How many times did the driver have to break up fights? How many times did a driver escort a team to an athletic field and then hunker down for a couple hours of sleep?

Did it have that "new bus smell" when the keys were handed over that first day?

I believe all vehicles develop personalities. Was this one steady, dependable, reliable? Or moody, grouchy, and prone to pouting?

And why, for pete's sake, is it not being used in Costa Rica at this moment to squeeze a few more thousand miles out it?