Bus Number 6

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread,
She whipped them all soundly, and put them to bed.
-Mother Goose

From Kindergarten until about third grade the bus I rode had a picture of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe - shoe on the back along with the bus number.

Looking back I find it a little odd. For several reasons. One being that there was a nursery rhyme illustration on the back of a bus that kids in high school rode. I guess that could've been why Joe Williams was always particularly unpleasant. Either that or the fact that his dad looked like one of the guys from ZZ Top.

On the first day of kindergarten my mom dropped me off at school in the morning, but that afternoon I had to ride the bus home. (It would be the beginning of a ten-year long adventure in bus riding). But that afternoon it was up to me to find that bus. To this day my mother's words still echo in my head: Look for the shoe, Lauren. Look for the shoe.

Well I found it. Of course it wasn't that hard seeing as it was the only bus with a picture on the back.

About 15 minutes into the route home, my bus broke down. Of course being the impressionable and nervous six-year-old that I was, I believed it when Joe Williams told me that we had run over a kid that was riding his skate board.

I was mortified. Not to mention a little bit confused that the bus driver didn't seem to be very upset.

It was the first in a long line of traumatic bus experiences.

I will save for later the story of how we were issued a bonafide "Short Bus" with faulty brakes for several months when I was in Jr. High.