The lady behind the big yellow bus💛🚍

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One of the important jobs in a school is not in the school, it's the school bus that delivers the students to the school. Although it's not my choice of a profession, there are plenty of good and committed school bus drivers. One of those is Beth Brown who has driven a variety of busses for St. Joe School in Plaucheville.

I say 'variety' because not only did she drive a regular school route she also drove kids to athletic events, activities like Beta conventions and field trips. Altogether, Beth has been driving for St. Joe 25 years although she has been licensed for 30 years.

Beth listed all the reasons she began driving 'the big yellow.' “They needed a sub,” she began, “my children were already attending St. Joe so they came with me, they also needed an athletic bus driver and all my kids were playing sports. That way I could go with them to the games, bus drivers got in games free and when we stopped for a meal, bus drivers also got their meal free.”

For Beth it was a win-win with the best being she could be with her children who were playing and bring along the small kids. “Sarah was eight-weeks old when I started driving the athletic bus but I brought her with me,” Beth remarked.

She drove the St. Joe route for two years on a “non-profit corporation bus” that had been formed by the St. Joe parents. It was a 38-40 mile route and became a crazy quilt of stops like Bayou Current, Bayou Rouge, Palmetto, Lebeau, Big Cane and Melville.

“I stopped for some at their houses but in places like Big Cane I picked up a group at the old Chapman's Grocery and Stelly's in Lebeau.”

The most colorful stop to me was Potatoville at the corner of something and something. The good thing was Beth didn't have to reinvent the wheel because the bus route had been in existence long before she took over.

During these years of driving the school route bus as well as the athletic bus, Beth was pregnant a lot of the time because she has seven children.

She laughed as she described the years on Deborah Sue, the old athletic bus that belonged to St. Joe School. “When I started driving the athletic bus, it was old, had stick shift and the driver's seat was broken. When I was pregnant I had to stand and push on the accelerator with everything I had.

Deborah Sue has been all over the state and there have been times when Beth didn’t get back home until 2:30/3:00 a.m. because “when I get back to school where the bus stays, I always clean it out.”

Beth said she loved driving the athletic bus “even after her kids stopped playing I'd drive it.” At some point Deborah Sue wore out and the school got a newer bus that has automatic shift and a real drivers seat. Still, Beth misses Deborah Sue.

How hard was it getting the CDL license she needed to drive a school bus, I asked her. “Well,” she said matter of factly, “I passed on the first try.” Her license is actually call CDL with passenger endorsements, because its a bus. “It's much harder to get a CDL now but I'm grandfathered in and only need to renew every four years with a yearly physical.”

From the very beginning of driving a school bus not only did Beth easily adapt to handling the 40-foot 'banana,' she became the apex of school bus drivers.

“I do like driving the bus, I love the kids; there's just something about being with them. I get to know them when they're on the bus.”

She commented on how she never really has any problems with the kids who range in age from kindergarten to high school. 'The high schoolers are quiet, it's the small ones who might get out of their seat and the middle schoolers that could act up.

“When kids sense you respect them and have no preconceived notions and if you're positive with them, they're positive. I treat them all the same.”

Things have changed through the years, Beth pointed out. “Years ago there were no electronics and when we'd go to games or on field trips, the kids would sing and I'd be singing right along with them. Walkmans, iPads showed up and now the phones and kids have gone to electronics so it's much more quiet.”

Then Beth weighed in on her ideas on how to be a good bus driver. “When those kids get on my bus they become mine and I become protective. Those are my children. I've always felt that way.”

Because she just can't get enough of driving a school bus, Beth is now driving for St. Landry. And yes it's a different school system but everything else is the same and she's loving it.