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How did you get to school?




Through the years, transportation to and from school has changed. SUBMITTED

Through the years, transportation to and from school has changed. SUBMITTED

Back in the old days children would walk to school. Walking distance was considered to be about three to six miles. 

You have heard the old adage that older people tell, “You youngsters got it made, why I used to walk 10 miles to school every day in the hot days of August and in the  rain and in the snow. I walked up hill to school, both ways.”   

Well many children did walk to school back in the day and some rode their pony to school.

When cars became popular in the 20s and 30s parents or neighbors would take a load of community kids to school (early carpooling). Sometimes the teacher would drive her car in the community and pick up her students and carry them to school.   

A precursor to the school bus of today was the horse drawn wagon. Some of these wagons were made with a covered top and the children would sit on benches or bales of hay facing each other. The State of Tennessee recognized the necessity of transporting pupils in connection with consolidated schools in 1909, when the legislature enacted a law that provided:

“…That when any county Board of Education should establish a consolidated school with as many as 3 or more teachers and provision is made for transporting the pupil dependent upon such school for educational facilities by who reside further than 2 and ½ miles there from, the State Board of Education may assist said school by appropriating to its maintenance a reasonable amount of funds provided by the section of this act…” (Public Acts of Tennessee, 1909, Chapter 264, Section 3).

In 1913, the legislature granted authority to county boards of education to provide transportation for elementary and high school students. In 1936 the law said, “It was the responsibility of the county Boards of Education to furnish transportation to students who reside too far away from school to attend without transportation, to purchase equipment and employ a driver or contract with the person owning the equipment” the first transportation was horse drawn wagons over approximately five miles distance on dirt or gravel roads. 

In 1937 in the General Appropriation Act provided $450,000 for elementary students. Public transportation was provided if the county would follow the regulations set up by the State Board of Education. (This info is from the Tennessee Board of Education 1937 “A study of local school units in Tennessee” (found using hathitrust.org)   

Have you ever wondered why all school buses are painted yellow?  In 1939, Frank W. Cyr was a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University New York and he organized a meeting to establish national school bus standards. The paint color adopted was called “school bus yellow” and it was chosen because it is the easiest color to see, especially in early morning and late afternoon. The paint is currently called “National School Bus Glossy Yellow.”

Bus transportation in the 40s and 50s

In the 40s most school systems started to consolidate schools and started to buy buses and hire drivers through the individual school systems. With WWII beginning, bus manufacturers went from building buses to building trucks and military equipment. 

Thanks to Kay Hurt and Peggy Morgan of the Sumner County School Archives for the following information. The school archives is only open on Tuesdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and they are located in the basement behind the Green Wave Football Stadium. You should check in out!

The following are lists of drivers from the Portland Area between the years of 1930 and 1961-62. In the early days students were driven to school by cars or trucks. In 1937-38 regular bus transportation began. Also, note that there is no record in 1932-33 and that bus driver records from the state were stopped being kept in 1962.

  • J.H. Kirkham – 1930-32

     2. Herschel Sherron and J. S. Legge – 1930-32

     3. John Bradley – 1930-31

     4. J. P. Stewart – 1930-31/1933-40

     5. T. L. Stephens – 1930-31

     6. Gus Brown – 1931/1933-59 

     7. Floyd Lamberth – 1933-35/ 1941-45/ 1952-61 

     8. James L. Smart – 1933-35/ 1947-51

     9. E. E. Suttle (Car) – 1933-34

     10. W. C. Freeland  (Truck) 1933-45        

     11. Mrs. Reece (Bessie) McGlothlin – (Car) 1934-36

     12. V. G. Hawkins (Car) 1933-35

    13. W. B. Bradley – (Truck) 1935-36

    14. Herschel Gregory – (Car) 1935-36

    15. Odell Brown (Truck) 1936-37/1939-46

    16. Alvin Wendt (Truck) 1936-39 Tolley Wendt? 39/40-41

    17. Willard Briley – 1940-43

    18. Ben Groves – 1943-44

    19. Ollie Atchison – 1944-51

    20. Richard Briggance – 1945-54/ 1958-62            

    21. Horace Smart – 1946-47 

    22. Harve  Woodard – 1947/48/49/50/51/52/53/55/56/57/58/59/60/61-62         (14)

    23. Henry Wilson -1948/ 1960-62

    24. Leslie Wiseman – 1949-62            

    25. Jerry W. Brown – 1950-57

    26. Maurice Collins – 1951-55

    27. Charles Wade Walker   1951-52

   28. Henry Allen Hinton – 1952-62

   29. Morris Haden Gregory – 1954-55

   30. Gordon Cole 1954-56

   31. Robert White 1955-57

   32. John Garnett White -1956-57/1960-62

   33. Roy Stewart -1957-59

   34. Ellis A. Carter -1956-62

   35. B. R. Sanders -1957-62

   36. Dobbs – 1957-58

   37. Harwell Short -1959-60

   38. Hazel Keene -1956/1959-62

   39. Henry Wilson – 1960-62

Bus transportation in the 60s and 70s

This was my era of riding school buses. I did not ride very much though, (I was spoiled and I was blessed to have parents who could and would drive me to school). I remember some things about riding, however. There were bullies back then just as there are today and we did have some on my bus that bullied me too and I probably bullied others, I don’t remember. 

I rode Mr. Fred Clubbs bus # 13. He was a great man and a good driver. I remember that he would sing and yodel on the bus. I didn’t know it at the time, but he went to school at Orlinda and had my grandmother, Naomi Holmes as his teacher in 3rd grade as he told me in his later years. 

When I was playing ball in high school some of the bus drivers would drive us to the away ball games. That was always fun, “singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall” all the way home, of course they were the games that we lost and we rode home in deafening silence. 

School bus transportation has changed much over the years. There is no doubt that drivers are not paid enough and it is a very hard job!  I will leave it for the next person to write an article about school bus transportation and the regulations of today.  

I will end on this quote from Karen Barry Greer, “As a teacher in Portland I remember talking to a lot of awesome bus drivers that needed credit for all the care they took of my students. I know bus drivers don’t always get the credit they deserve but these people really take good care of the students on their buses”

Paula Shannon is a member of the Highland Rim Historical Society.

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