My mother was a bus driver for 23 years before she left us for Heaven.  She loved being a bus driver because she loved children.  To parent’s of kindergarteners she was known as the ‘singing bus driver.’  She had this title because she would sing with the kindergartens as she drove them to and from school, making them more calm and to feel more safe.

My dad would tell the story of growing up around Mullins Station (KY) and taking the bus to school as he entered upper grades.  This was after he had walked up hills for six miles each way to school as a youngster.  I don’t know exactly what year he was in school when this occurred.  He said that he rarely remembered making it to school clean in Winter and Spring.  

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

Dad would tell of the kids on the bus getting out and pushing the bus to help it get up those muddy hills and out of ditches when it got stuck.  Can you imagine?  Can you imagine kids coming home today and telling their parent, “I am dirty today because we had to push the bus to get it unstuck again?”  My dad painted a picture of primarily boys finding rocks and logs to place under the wheels to give the bus’s tires some traction and then the boys collectively pushing, mud being thrown everywhere and all over them as those tires desperately spun, trying to free themselves from those Appalachian ruts and hills not made for modern transportation.  Chivalry was in full force as the boys tried to take care of the issue so the girls were not dirty all day, but some days the situation called for all hands on deck.

Ready for this?  The Bus Driver was one of the kids classmates!  Typically a senior, or upper grade student.  Like much of what I have marveled at and marvel about those KY hollers was they made do with what they had.  Funds were tight.  People available to drive the buses scarce.  An overriding understanding that the road to overcoming the poverty and situation that kids were growing up in lay in those schools and whatever the requirement, those kids were going to make it to school.  Amazing!

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  Philippians 6:8 (NIV)

As my dad would tell of the classmate driving the bus, my mother would shudder with anxiety and amazement.  She apparently grew up in the ritzier section of Appalachia called Crooked Creek, where an adult actually drove the bus.  There is  always someone worse off than you and you are always worse off than someone else.  “Worse off” being defined by a World who values differently than Heaven does.  The great equalizer is God’s amazing love and unlimited value that he equally places on each of us.

I have read comparisons of buying a car in the 1950’s and the instruction manual would tell the buyer how to rebuild a carburetor and now the manual tells us not to drink the coolant that goes into the radiator.  I’ve never verified if that is true, but makes sense.  I believe the comparison is made to suggest that we are dumber than we used to be.  We’re not, but our focus and learning has moved by the ever changing World we live in.  My mother has been gone to Heaven for 25 years and I often think of how things have changed since her passing.  She would not know or understand how to order something online and we would have to explain what ‘online’ meant.  She would marvel that she could talk with her grandkids and great grandkids while seeing them live on a screen that could be held in her hand.  Not dumber, just different times.

So, in those mid and late 1940’s and early 1950’s, America’s kids had saved the World.  With this backdrop, asking a “kid” to drive other kids to school just doesn’t seem all that far fetched.  Those Appalachian kids became ministers, doctors, teachers, electricians, bus drivers, tobacco farmers, coal miners, moms, dads, beacons of example, hope and a tenacity only found in those hills where poverty existed and promise reigned.

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”  Philippians 6:9 (NIV)

You just can’t make this stuff up.