The bus ride to school

I was picked up in the morning by a driver from a taxi company who was specially engaged to pick up the students at home and bring them back home towards the end of the afternoon. That is, if you were lucky enough to live no further north than Sittard. The children who were less lucky stayed at one of the four boarding schools in the grounds of the institution. But I lived in Sittard so I just went home every night.

That ride of about 45 minutes was quite enjoyable. When I got on the bus there were already a few children in it, because the driver went on the road early to finish the route on time. About six children had been entrusted to him, who had to be in Houthem before 9 am.

In the van I was in, we managed to enjoy ourselves during the 45-minute journey. We played Hints guessing games, and often performed complete plays, shaking up the story lines on the spot. It often concerned stories about Arendsoog and Witte Veder (Dutch children’s books series), where – because there were more than two children on the bus – extra characters were brought in. So it could just happen that Dracula appeared in the Wild West, who then helped to catch the crooks. Explain that to Mr. Nowee, the authors of the popular series! But children are imaginative, so it was all possible on our bus. Nothing was too crazy for us. Of course we also provided the necessary sound effects. We did not need expensive equipment for that. For example, one of the girls on the bus was able to emulate the sound of a horse at a gallop through a combination of claps in her hands and on her knees. Sound technicians: eat your heart out!

But sometimes something unexpected happened during the ride. Especially at the beginning of my school days it was not always easy for the driver because if something happened that was not part of the normal routines, he was on his own. That is why – much – it was later decided that in addition to the driver, an assistant should always come along to be able to offer help if necessary. This help was usually intended for the children so that the driver could keep his full attention on the road without being distracted by the children.

Fortunately, such an unexpected situation did not occur that often, so the assistant only had to make herself useful in helping the children get in and out. However, sometimes something happened that caused a lot of discussion for the rest of the evening or the day after. For example, we ended up in a heavy cloudburst late one afternoon. It was raining so hard that the streets were completely blank in minutes. That in itself would not have been a problem, had it not been for us to approach Sittard, where we had to pass under a low-lying viaduct. The road went down sharply to reach the low point under the bridge and then steeply up to the previous height. The rain had made sure that the water level was at least half a meter high at that deepest point. This was dangerous because it could stall the engine and damage the starter motor, which would have made it extremely difficult to get going again. The driver hesitated briefly but decided to continue driving. There was actually no turning back either; behind us were already some impatient motorists, making a lot of noise with their horns, not understanding why we were driving so slowly. We went down at a very low speed. Even though we were only teenagers, we realized what could happen. We were approaching the lowest point. The water sloshed against the metal of the bus. Fortunately the engine still sounded the same, no hitches. With bated breath we looked at the gray sky at the end of the tunnel. Would it work? Didn’t we get stuck under that nasty dark bridge? Fortunately, the engine kept producing the same reassuring sound as we took the slope up. A loud applause for the driver echoed throughout the bus. What a relief!