THE BIG YELLOW BEAST
Marshall Singletary

You can reach Marshall K. Singletary by U.S. Mail at: P. O. Box 420, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830, by phone: 706-554-2188, or via email:msingletary@wfumc.org.

The school buses are on the road again. Like big yellow beasts they grumble down the streets each morning gobbling children only to return in the afternoons to eject them (or their pods) onto the streets again. For some reason parents allow the beasts to do this, and the children show little resistance.

I too was a bus rider in the long ago days of grade school. The yellow beast was part of my life for years and has become a source of memories now. The school bus system down

in Seminole County was reserved for rural children in those days. Those who lived within the city limits either walked to school or were driven by their parents.

Mr. Thomas drove bus Number Two. My sister and I were picked up on the first load in the morning and the second load in the afternoon. That was to our advantage of course. We had more play time on campus before school in the morning and after school in the afternoons. The rural boys usually came into class a little dirty and sweaty from playing, wrestling and chasing. I still don't know how my sister and the other girls were able to stay so clean.

By the sixth grade, I was becoming socially aware. In the lower grades, many of us had wanted to sit near the driver's door. We might be chosen to open and close the door or check for approaching trains before we crossed the tracks. A few years later, I noticed that the older boys tended to crowd into the back seats. I could hardly wait to be old enough to move toward the back. I wanted to hear what they were always laughing about. I wanted to stretch out on the seats and not let anyone younger than I sit on a seat with me. That was so cool and powerful!

When I finally reached the age to join the big boys on the back seats, I discovered that it really was just that cool and powerful! I would stretch out with my feet on the seat, lay my arm across the back and lean against the bus wall. Of course, I wore a scowl that I had practiced to perfection in front of the mirror. Occasionally, a girl named, Patsy, would invite me to sit with her after her boyfriend got off the bus. Yes sir, I was just as cool as any fifteen year old "greaser" in Seminole County. You can imagine how cool that was.

I am grateful that I was never suspended from riding the bus. I came awfully close a few times. If I had been suspended, my father would have put me to work in the fields until the suspension was over. My mother would have explained how disappointed she was in me, and that would have been even worse! For whatever reason, Mr. Thomas chose not to report my name and behavior to the principal.

Now that I think about it, it must have been because I was so cool!