Where did your bus serve and where is it now?

[bansil]

Originally Posted by Accordion

My bus was a school bus. It then served as a Johnson City Tennessee emergency management vehicle. Now, it is my home.

Small world, we are going to Johnson city today for groceries and wine

[porkchopsandwiches]

My bus was built in 1998 and sold as a 1999 model to Montgomery County Public Schools of Maryland. It was in a more rural part of the county so it probably saw a lot of highway and back-road use. It was a spare bus for the last few years of its life and didnt see much use at all.

It is still in Montgomery County MD, and is being built into my skoolie.

[sdwarf36]

Originally Posted by porkchopsandwiches

My bus was built in 1998 and sold as a 1999 model to Montgomery County Public Schools of Maryland. It was in a more rural part of the county so it probably saw a lot of highway and back-road use. It was a spare bus for the last few years of its life and didnt see much use at all.

It is still in Montgomery County MD, and is being built into my skoolie.

Ok-you're still young enough to be in its lifespan-you figure if you or any of your buddies rode on it?

[porkchopsandwiches]

Originally Posted by sdwarf36

Ok-you're still young enough to be in its lifespan-you figure if you or any of your buddies rode on it?

I doubt this particular one. This one was in a more rural, up-county area that I live about half an hour from. However I rode primarily on this model and similar years to what I own now, except in first grade when the county still used full size front engined Chevy buses with Detroit diesels (don't ask how I remember that).

[bansil]

Originally Posted by porkchopsandwiches

I doubt this particular one. This one was in a more rural, up-county area that I live about half an hour from. However I rode primarily on this model and similar years to what I own now, except in first grade when the county still used full size front engined Chevy buses with Detroit diesels (don't ask how I remember that).

Okay,how do you remember that?

[schoolmarm]

Inquiring minds want to know!

[ol trunt]

And so do the rest of us.

[reb336]

Freebird started out her life in Athens, Georgia for the Clarke County Board of Education.
She then pulled duty for a local church day care/pre-K school.

She now resides in Toccoa, Georgia

I have the original key chain used by the school system. The bus's original bus number was 89-85 which happens to be the birth years of my two kids.
She was meant to become a part of our family.

[Redbear]

Originally Posted by bansil

Okay,how do you remember that?

I remember I rode the coolest bus in town in the 1960's. All the bus routes were bid out by the town each year on a cents-per-mile basis, and most drivers were owner-operators. One driver owned 3 buses and had employees.

Most of the buses were straight-6 International gassers with a 4-speed stick, and a standard roof. Remember, those old Kornbinder transmissions were 3-speed plus "underdrive." By high school there were a few IH diesels and one or two automatics.

My owner-operator Larry had a V-8 Ford with a 2-speed rear axle. The stick was either 4-speed or 5-speed with underdrive. It had a high roof with luggage trays so it could be used as an activity bus.

Larry drove all day. First the town high school run, then the town elementary school run, then a run to one of the four grammar schools. After than, Larry switched to a truck and did the mail run between the local post office and the city. Back in the bus for the high school, elementary school, and grammar school afternoon runs. He must have been low bidder, because he got all the long runs from our far end of town.

It was good that he had the overhead bins. It gave you something to hold onto when you had to stand. You couldn't always be lined up between two seat backs. One year, they gave Larry so many miles that he had 80+ students packed in like sardines on the first day of high school. They adjusted about 20 kids off of the run, but we were still nearly the last pickup, and I think I stood every day. I practiced 'surfing' the bus, using no hands on stops, starts, and turns.

Maybe that 'splains a lot about how I turned out . . . .