Longtime bus drivers find new year welcoming

by Chrystal Doucette<br>Herald Staff Writer
| August 28, 2006 9:00 PM

Camaraderie, stories and teasing all part of the job

MOSES LAKE — Bob Noyes remembers the time a middle school student brought a squirrel on his bus, hidden in his backpack.

When the bus was full, he let it run wild. The squirrel ran under Noyes' legs and hid under his dashboard. He tried to get the squirrel out, pulling on the tip of its tail. Instead of emerging with a squirrel, Noyes' hands emerged with a tip of squirrel fur.

"Overall, it was a pretty good prank," said Noyes, part-time bus driver and part-time mechanic at the Moses Lake School District with nine years of experience driving buses.

Barb Ronk has been with the district the longest, driving for 36 years, including her two years as a substitute driver.

Years ago, a student set a firecracker off while she was driving along the highway. She was so frightened, she slammed on her brakes.

"I'm surprised every kid on the bus wasn't up against my windshield," Ronk said.

But Dyan Ford, a driver of nine years, said her bus rides have remained fairly mild — the worst behavior on her bus was someone lighting a match.

"I've never kicked a kid off my bus," Ford said.

The drivers said they are looking forward to the start of a new year Aug. 30. Ford said if the drivers didn't love their jobs, they could never do it.

Ronk said she feels the children keep her young. Even after so many years with thedistrict, not a spot of gray hair is visible in her bright red head.

"People think I'm crazy but I really do love my job," Ronk said.

Although there is a sense of camaraderie among the drivers, Ronk does get made fun of for her many years on the job. An old crank that started vehicles back in the day sits on the bottom floor of the bus depot, rumored to be her first bus key. She is also referred to as a "relic."

The growth in the community caused some confusion on the part of Ronk and the other drivers as they expand their routes to service more in the area, including the Garden Heights and Yonezawa neighborhoods. Ronk was asked to pick up students on a road whose name she cannot recall, "Dilly" or "Dill."

"I says, where the heck is this?" she said.

Normally the seasoned bus drivers know where most of the streets are. For newer bus drivers, Noyes said the first year or two can be a challenge, getting to know the names of children and trying to find the roads on their route.

Some routes cover a lot of area and the number of children can get pretty sizable too, some with 70 children on them. Ford said it can get hectic when a child forgets a backpack and tries to "swim upstream" as other children are getting off the bus.

Her route is roughly 50 miles long. New buses put on about 25,000 to 30,000 miles per year.

Noyes and Ford said middle school students are the most rowdy. After school, "It's like recess in the bus," Ford said.

Writing a referral is rare for Noyes and Ronk, and Ford has never had to write one, but when a student misbehaves, they always get caught with the camera. Ten to 12 years ago, a bus could have a camera with no film inside, but today, all of the cameras are working. Thanks to technology, Noyes was able to identify which student hid the squirrel in his bag, and when a student brought a stink bomb onto the bus, "I caught him, too, with the camera," Noyes said.

"You'll be the star of your own show, here," Ford said.