As Labor Day comes into view, so do the first days of school and with them, a hopeful return to a routine academic year.
It also means it’s that time of year. Drive safely. Watch out for school buses.
It is fitting that this week our pages touch on the lives of two local school bus drivers.
In our Characters of the County this week, Evan Houk profiles Bristol resident Sandra Lane who transported literally generations of Bristol students to school during her driving career. In his column, Damariscotta historian Calvin Dodge details the life of Philip R. Hall, who years earlier, transported many Damariscotta children to area schools.
If anyone still needs convincing how special our little place in the world is, consider this: in many school districts across the country today, bus drivers, vital as they are, are as interchangeable and indistinguishable as the yellow buses they drive.
Here in Lincoln County, school bus drivers are very much more than that. Sandra Lane, decades after driving her last bus route, was celebrated as the Grand Marshal of the Olde Bristol Days parade. Not only was Lane delighted by the honor, but members of the community were equally delighted by the chance to honor her.
By the same token, we’ll guarantee you if any of Philip K. Hall’s passengers were still around to read Calvin’s story this week, they’ll pause and remember him just as fondly as Lane’s passengers remember her.
For years the Great Salt Bay School retained the same nucleus of drivers, and those men and women very much viewed themselves as part of the team. GSB’s drivers even took it upon themselves to organize the school’s bike rodeo, where bike helmets, inspections, and safety tips were handed out liberally.
Think about that. Where else are you going to find seasonal part-time employees taking on that kind of function? Granted, it’s not entirely unknown, but it is not common.
Drivers like Sandra Lane, reliably transporting precious cargo year in and year out is as much of a family’s education experience as any other part of the school, probably more so, being that much more visible and much less insistent on assigning homework.
Finally, in light of the fact that last week’s editorial bemoaning the lack of rain was followed by three days of wet weather, we can’t fail to mention that, so far as is known, no Lincoln County journalist has ever won Megabucks.
