HOW I GOT STARTED

I started working with the kids I work with almost 20 years to 25 years ago driving. It was the best thing I felt I had in my life. It was after I was separated and I had 2 kids to raise. I had to get help from welfare, food stamps and the whole experience was a horror story in it self. In talking with someone that worked for a Bus Company. I landed a job driving Special Education kids. It was funny how I got the job because I just went on her run with her to see what it was like. When we got to the school where she was to pick up kids, her Supervisor came over to her van. She opened my door said are you Maryjane? I said yes and she said come with me. I did and she showed me a run and I was on my first driving expedition. That's what it turned into for me because the night before I didn't get any sleep. I kept dreaming that I lost all the kids and never got them home. Needless to say the next morning I was sleepy and afraid to pick any of them up. Well I ventured out and I learned what the dream was all about. I have zero sense of direction. I can get lost very easy because after I've been in to pick up I couldn't remember whether to make rights or lefts to get back on the right tracks.

Well it became a real challenge over the years. The Principals, the teachers, and the Bus Co. people were always trying to catch me to ask why the kids were always late. How could I tell them? I finally worked it out with the Bus Co. What I suggested was a good set of directions with street names, land marks, colors of houses, anything it took for this kind of air head. Why one day I even took a tape recorder and taped the directions and then listened as I drove telling me to turn by the blue house, or the red mailbox and the Bus Company got a real kick out of that.

My new problem now was the return trip. I couldn't just pick the kids up, I also had to be able to get them back home. So I went back to the Bus Company and suggested a new set of directions to get the kids back home. Hey what can I tell you? They not only did what I asked, it's now standard equipment on new runs. (giggle, giggle!) All drivers get a set of 2 way directions.

I have driven the bus picking up these kids for the past 24 years. However, this year I am working in the school with them on a one on one basis and thus I am unable to drive this year. My web site here is to tell of some of the special moments in my life while with these children.