Day after Labor Day, all across Monsey (and Spring Valley, for those in the Dr. Frank/Francis area. And the Blochs…)
So we got our bus passes in the mail sometime during the summer, while screaming ourselves hoarse in day camp. We excitedly tear it out on the perforated lines, hoping that it doesn’t rip right down the middle. Next, we try to get it into the plastic holder with that weird shaped pin on the back….. We try to pin it to our shirts just to see how it looks but all we actually do is prick ourselves with the aforementioned pin. “East Ramapo Central School District” it says across the top. Typed (!) on the card it says you name, address, school and place of your “stop”. The bus-stops are usually on a street corner, “we don’t make house stops” the drivers always said. But of course there we always those lucky kids who had their stop basically ON their driveway…. . On the back of the bus-pass there was a list of rules. 1) Obey the bus driver at all times. 2) “Never place head or hands out of bus window”, (BD boys always made the lomdisher conclusion that feet were totally permitted to hang out of the window. 3) Do not stand in front of white line while bus is in “motion” (took years to figure out what that meant…). 4) Do not eat or drink on the bus (yeah right, we have to eat up our “recess” SOMEWHERE, right??). Then there were the unspoken rules. Like “first one on the bus goes to the back seat etc.”. What were they thinking?! Or “Emergency windows and doors are for emergencies ONLY. Really?? What will the trouble-makers do otherwise?
First day on the bus.
You wake up late and suddenly remind yourself that it is the first day of “buses”. You already had like three weeks of just “learning” and mishmor, but now you will start “English”, either regular or “late” “English”. You rush like a mad-man, grab your briefcase, some “recess” and head to the corner. Your shoes get mildly wet from the morning “tal” as you try to see who else shares your bus stop. Bais Mikro kids? YSV? Maybe even some goyisher Public School kids (gasp). Then you begin to wait…… The excitement turns to trepidation as you suddenly realize that you might end up with a “crazy” bus driver. Finally you hear a bus chugging towards you, the telltale screeching of the brakes. But of course it’s not your bus, the other kids get picked up first.
At last your bus pulls up. You wonder what that bird logo is, what is that little fold-up, step-like thing near the door? The driver, usually a heavy set, beer bellied, middle aged person, holds a computer printout, the old kind with the holes all along the sides. The driver checks the bus pass and you settle in to a seat. The green seats have all sorts of caricatures and writing, unless, of course, the seat is ripped…. You try not to lift the emergency window handle, all the while wondering what purpose those little round white light on the ceiling do.
I can go on and on but where will it end? Friday dismissal? Getting kicked off the bus? We can discuss those kids who always fall asleep on the bus. Or the various bus drivers, good and bad, throughout history. Or buses breaking down, pulling out the orange tri-angle from behind the driver’s seat. The little fan for the driver, the video cameras that were installed later on, the “mic” that can be used for talking in the bus or even out of the bus. The yellow stick that swings out when the door opens, the various different technology used to open the front door, the training of the new drivers, the X-mas presents that drivers would sometimes give, the drivers who would only turn on the wiper on THEIR side when it rained….. The list goes on.
