Page 71 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

DRIVING THE SCHOOL BUS

When I was a senior in High School, our bus driver was a very nice man by the name of Wilbur Harden.
Incidentally, Wilbur was married to my daddy’s second cousin, Leona Dicks, and 1 suppose Leona
would have been my third cousin, and Wilbur Harden would have been my third cousin by marriage.

When I was a senior in High School, on the way home on the bus, after we got out of town at least 3 or
4 miles, Wilbur would say “Lenvil, come on up here and drive the bus and I’ll sit there on that seat
behind the driver’s seat”.

Now [ don’t recall whether or not at some time I had asked Wilbur to let me drive the bus, which I
probably had, but it may have been his own idea, and I learned to drive a school bus pretty well.

Without realizing this would come in handy many years later, I was able to save the Columbia High
School Band a good bit of money when we would take trips, because 1 would always drive the Band Bus
rather than hiring a driver. Those school bus driving lessons I had under Wilbur Harden certainly came
in handy.

I cannot imagine what would happen today if one of his school bus drivers allowed one the students to
take over and drive the bus, but I think we all lived a little looser lives back then than we are allowed to
live now. One evidence of that is that my dad allowed me to drive the old Chevy when I was eight years
old, and of course it had a clutch and stick-shift.

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