Just the other day when I was going outside to work on the electrical panel I reached out and grabbed the door handle on the dash of our 4104, man the memories came flooding in.  When I was a young boy, about 7 years old I started riding the buses back and forth from Dallas, Houston and Beaumont to Temple.

    I remember a driver one night asking me if I wanted to open the door for the passengers and he said "just tug it real hard and let it swing open" , I did and the door flung open, funny what stays with you from the past. You know I cannot remember a time when I was scared riding these buses, the closest thing I can remember to being scared was riding in a storm one night between Dallas and Waco heading to Temple, there was thunder, lightning and rain and the driver reached over and slapped my leg and said "isn't that sky beautiful (He paused a second or two) you better get some sleep boy I’ll wake you when we get to Temple" That’s all it took and I was out like a light.

    Watching the countryside go by and watching the driver going down the road was like watching a pilot fly a space ship, or when we made stops and swung that door open and yelled “15 minutes 15 Minutes” , this was all exciting to a 7year old and all the different type of people made it seem like living in a fantasy world. These buses were in their hay day at that time and it was a grand sight pulling into the bus station and loading up on that one that had HOUSTON lit up in the destination window, man what a sight. The smell of the diesel and the sound of the tires, the announcements over the loud speakers, I could go on and on. Anyway I guess what I am trying to say is, having this bus now and building into a home on wheels is kinda like going full circle to me. I guess I’m finally home.

    A special note to any of the old bus drivers out there....

    As I grew up and started learning about life I realized that was a different era,  my folks could holler at the driver and tell them "watch out for him" and the drivers took it personal, they never shied away from responsibility, I have had drivers that would walk me into the cafe and sit with me while I ate a sandwich and give me all the time I needed before getting up and calling "Load up".  I have also been on buses that had emergency stops, accidents or breakdowns and the driver always made sure the passengers were ok and calm, especially the kids. I want to personally thank you for the security I felt back then and all the fun I had and tell you, You are a SPECIAL BREED, thanks for the ride......

Thanks for listening.

Gerald Norman 52 years and still riding.