Special interest group: ‘It’s a huge responsibility’ carrying children from school to school, these retired bus drivers say

The wheels on the bus go round and round, and nobody knows that better than the small group of retired school bus drivers that meets at the Hillside Inn for breakfast each Wednesday.

“Four bus companies have come and gone in our time,” Roger DeShaw said. “We survived them all.”

They also survived navigating Spokane’s mean streets and dealing with impatient drivers while ferrying their precious cargo.

“Roger trained me,” Judy Balzer said.

She launched the gatherings many years ago with a picnic at her home.

“We were a group of friends, but we never got to see each other,” she said.

Over time, the group moved from meeting monthly for dinner at each other’s homes to gathering at the Hillside for breakfast.

As their spouses retired, they also joined the group.

Pat Hammond nudged her husband, David, to start driving.

“A friend told me I needed to be a school bus driver,” she said. “Dave was retired. I’d go to work, and he’d be sitting in his chair. I told him if he was going to sleep all day, he might as well be a school bus driver!”

She soon moved from driver to bus attendant – a job she held for 15 years.

“I didn’t like having to know where all the streets were,” she said.

Each year, drivers bid on their routes, and David Hammond quickly had a preference.

“North Side,” he said. “Winter on the South Hill is not so great.”

They also had a preference for which age group they’d haul.

“My favorite was elementary and high school,” Balzer said. “I hated middle school!”

Hammond nodded.

“High schoolers just want to go to school and get home,” he said. “Grade -schoolers enjoy structure. It’s middle-schoolers who want to press every issue. You have to have a thick skin.”

All of the drivers agreed that patience was the most important quality for a school bus driver.

“I was a special needs driver for 13 years,” Jerry Hollman said. “I drove all over the city. I loved the kids!”

That’s what Hammond said he enjoyed most about the job.

“For me, it was all about the kids,” he said. “No day was ever the same.”

Richard Baysinger said he drove the bus for special needs passengers for most of his 10-year tenure.

“My favorite was taking the kids on field trips and to the fairgrounds,” he said.

The job isn’t for everyone.

“One driver walked off the job on his first day,” DeShaw said.

Apparently, he handled the morning drive OK, but he couldn’t cut the after-school trip.

“He turned and left a bus full of kids at the school.”

Hammond explained the difference between the two drives.

“In the morning, they’re quiet,” he said, “but they’re rowdy after school.”

For all the hair-raising stories they could tell, their camaraderie stems from the connections they’ve forged over the years and the way they truly enjoyed their work.

The next time you see a big yellow bus go rumbling by, you might want to remember DeShaw’s words.

“I wish people knew how much bus drivers care about the people they carry,” he said. “It’s a huge responsibility carrying people’s children to and from school.”