3 Years of “Pipe Down” and One Tearful Last Day: 13 Bus Drivers and Crossing Guards Kids Never Forgot

Aunt · kindergarten graduation party

Her niece’s school bus driver came to the kindergarten graduation party, and the little girl didn’t leave his side. They sat together at the party table, played games and talked the whole time, as if the rest of the party was happening somewhere else. Her aunt filmed them from across the room and called it the cutest thing she had ever seen.

“Ok so this was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. They acted like best friends!”

“1979 — My middle school bus driver was the coolest.”

He kept us kids grooving with P-Funk, soul, and the occasional disco mixtape blasting from his boombox. Simpler days.

Some super fun times to be sure.

I know that street corner, I know that set up, and I know that crossing guard!!!! That incredible woman is Valentine!

She has been working on that corner since I was born, and she’s been there with the most infectious smile I’ve ever seen every day since before I started and after I graduated. She’d set up these little stands every year for the last week of school and the week it started; sometimes school supplies, sometimes snacks and candy, sometimes little gifts.

I’m tearing up just thinking about her, how she’d hug you and wave and say “HEY BOO!” every day, sometimes I don’t even think she’s real. She’s just this happiness elemental that blips into existence every morning school starts and the moment that it lets out.

I took the bus twice a day to and from high school for three years. We fought, screamed, spat, kicked, laughed.

The same driver for three years spoke twice that I can recall: on two occasions I heard him say loudly, “PIPE DOWN!”. He was just this stoic man that wore old greasy ball caps that never said nothing but drove on time and was reliable.

On the last day of school my pal gave him a new trucker style ball cap and I gave him a handmade card with the signatures of [everyone who] sat in the back of the bus. I thanked him in the card for letting us be our stupid selves.

It took me off guard to see the water swell up in the eyes of a man so calm and reserved. The joy on his face was overwhelming. I will never forget that moment.

Parent · last day of kindergarten

On the last day of kindergarten, Mr. Jeff stepped off his bus with bags of gifts for every child on his route. One got a puzzle, another a princess water bottle, and he called each kid over by name. Nobody had asked him to do it. The parents at the stop thanked him again and again before everyone said goodbye until the next school year.

“Mr. Jeff, if you’re watching this, you’ve won our hearts! He didn’t have to do this and the fact he did, makes my heart so happy.”

“I’m a school bus driver. I had to do it!”

My elementary kiddos didn’t, and some were even confused and thought I was a sub driver at first.

My high school kids got it immediately. I even put on the theme song over the radio and they were all recording me.

I never thought about it until I got the idea for the costume. Did Mrs. Frizzle have a CDL and a degree? In my district, even if a teacher had a CDL, they wouldn’t be allowed to do both jobs, not just due to schedule conflicts but also due to district policies.

Crossing guard’s child · every school day

“Valentines for the crossing guard.”

My mom is a crossing guard at the middle school. At the end of every school day she crosses a student and they (the student) walks into [the store] to grab a snack.

My mom then waits for the student to come back and she crosses them once more and they walk home.

Today the student took longer in [the store] than usual. My mom waited and was hoping nothing was wrong.

Finally, the student came out with a box of heart chocolates, “If anyone deserved a Valentines it was the crossing guard,” and said, “Thank you for crossing her everyday.”

Brought tears to my mom’s eyes.

Bus driver · elementary afternoon route

I’m halfway through my afternoon elementary route, sweating like I owe the sun money, when a 4th grader raises his hand dramatically.

“Mr. Robert... the bus is making a noise.”

So I’m listening carefully.

And I hear it.

PSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Loud. Aggressive. Like the bus is personally offended.

Every kid goes silent.

One girl whispers, “Is that... a snake?”

Now I know that sound. That’s air pressure releasing from the brake system. Completely normal.

So I calmly grab the mic.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the bus is not exploding. That sound is just the air brakes. The bus is fine.”

Silence.

Then one kid goes,

“Oh. So it’s just burping?”

Now the entire bus erupts.

“MR. ROBERT, YOUR BUS NEEDS A DOCTOR.”

“OPEN A WINDOW.”

And for the rest of the route, every single time I stopped...

PSSSSSSSS.

Thirty children:

“EXCUSE YOU.”

And the worst part?

By the end of the route...

I started laughing too.

Parent · middle school route

My middle schooler came home with an envelope addressed to him from his bus driver. At first he thought he was in trouble. But it was a lovely handwritten note about drumming and a newspaper article about a local drumline.

My child is in the marching band and frequently practices on his drumpad during the bus ride. We were both so pleased by this kind gesture.

So thank you bus drivers. You transport my children safely to school year after year. Even when the weather is bad and roads not in the best shape. You know my children’s names and you take the time to recognize them as individuals.

Former rider · 7th grade, 1979

I don’t remember her name (Cheryl, maybe?) but she was cool as heck. One day, coming around a steep curve, she hit a phone pole. It was barely anything, but us 7th grade kids in 1979 thought it was awesome. We whooped and hollered and laughed.

Every day after that, when we’d go around that curve, we’d ask her to hit the phone pole again. She told us that if we behaved on the bus for the rest of the year, she’d hit the pole again on the last day of school. We couldn’t wait.

When the last day of school came we were so excited. We approached the curve, and she slowed the bus. Then she stopped it, got out, and hit the pole with her fist.

Grown kid · first day on the job

The mom had just retired, and she was starting a new job as one of about a dozen new crossing guards in town. She was nervous, so her grown kid came down early, they grabbed a coffee together and walked to the training center, a little role reversal. The video asks anyone who sees her at the crosswalk to give her a honk and a wave.

“Walking my retired mom to her first day on her new job as a crossing guard.”

Great-grandchild · last day of school, decades ago

My Great Grandfather used to be a bus driver back in the day.

My father was lucky enough to have him. I guess it was tradition for the students to have WATER fights on the bus on the last day of school.

Water guns, water balloons and anything else the students could fill up. I guess his idea behind it was on the last day of school the bus drivers had to do a “end of the year clean up” so instead of wasting time hosing down the interior of the bus, he would just let the kids have a water fight.

“Last day of school and I found this in my bus this morning. Made my day.”

I work for a small frontier school that has about 25 kids, some living on nearby ranches. Everyone at the school signed these on the back and a teacher showed up super early to set it up before my last morning run of the year.

There was also a framed poem about their appreciation for me with everyone’s fingerprints along the edges. It made my day and lifted my spirits.