The Absent Uncle: My favorite job
I have mentioned in earlier columns that my job life centered around school bus transportation for the most part. As I look back on all the different jobs or positions that I held in those 45-plus years, I know without a doubt which was my favorite.
In 1975, after being discharged from active duty in the U.S. Navy, I enrolled at San Diego State to resume my college studies. I was married and had a 3-year-old daughter, so I cobbled together a couple of part-time jobs and my VA benefits in order to be a full-time student and support my family.
As with most people in that situation, I had to find jobs and earnings that fit with my class schedule and financial needs. It took a bit of trial and error to put it all together. Somehow, someway (a subject for a future column) I stumbled into what I now unabashedly proclaim as my favorite job.
As a result, for a couple of school years, I was a special ed (special needs) school bus driver. It was not a big bus, just a regular, full-size van, outfitted to be able to carry up to 12 students legally under California state law.
This experience, coupled with opportunities I certainly could not foresee, propelled me into a lifelong and rewarding career. Nobody I have ever met ever thought about being a school bus professional in their growing up or career-choosing days.
But let’s get back to my favorite job. At the time I started driving, the transportation program in San Diego was limited to about 40 to 50 school bus vans that transported the students to and from home to school. Routes were established by the department head and students were taken to specialized schools or programs dedicated to the special need of the child.
During those couple of school years, I was assigned a variety of different students. For the most part (route time permitting) each driver would be given two “runs” in the morning and afternoon, meaning that two different groups of students would be transported. Sometimes you would be assigned different groups in the morning and afternoon introducing you to more students and situations. You were one on one (or 10) with minimal or no training and expected to take those students to school and back home – safely.
I loved it. Getting to know about the special needs of each student, the programs they were involved with, and the parents whose lives were so affected by their special children. It was so rewarding, and I could see how much more could be done to make this transportation part of their lives easier. And the rest became my history. But it was my favorite job.
