A Tribute to Former Daviess County Public School Bus Driver Evelyn Keown

It's National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day and I am throwing it back to the 1980s and paying tribute to a school bus driver that I absolutely adored. Evelyn Keown drove Bus #199 for years and I had the pleasure of riding along for many of them.

I have some vivid, fond and hilarious memories of Mrs. Keown, who used to drive in the Daviess County Public School System. I lived out in the eastern side of the county and Evelyn's route was up and down Hwy 1389. I lived on Roy Clark Road, which intersected that particular highway. Evelyn lived out that way too, so I assume it made perfect sense for her to drive that route every day. It stretched all the way to the Daviess County/Hancock County line.

I have three specific very vivid memories about riding Evelyn's bus. A couple are hilarious. One was terrifying.

I suppose we'll start with the terrifying one and get it out of the way. Things were incredibly different back in the early 1980s. Snow days then were not what they are now. It seems a single snow flurry will cancel school these days. When I was a kid, it felt like it took a blizzard to cancel class.

I remember one particular morning when it was snowing HEAVILY. Everyone was convinced school was going to be called off, but it wasn't. So, my sister and I hoofed it down to the intersection and waited for Mrs. Keown to pull the bus up.  It was snowing so hard that we (and she) could barely see. By the time Bus #199 made it to us, the roads were completely covered and the snow was getting heavier and heavier. But, Mrs. Keown was a trooper. She pulled up, we piled on, then she started to ascend the hill that connected Hwy 1389 with Hwy 144. If you know that area, you know the 'hill' I am talking about.

However, when she approached the stop sign at the top of that incline, she applied the brake and the bus started to skid- fishtail. Well, back then, there was a steep hill directly to the right of that intersection and the bus was veering right for the edge of it. I remember all of the kids on the bus screaming, "We're gonna die!!!" as Mrs. Keown struggled to keep the bus from skidding further. I don't know how she did it (with all of our faces plastered to the windows and convinced the bus was going to topple over and roll down the cliff), but she woman-handled that bus like a boss. She stopped the skid, steadied the ship, calmed our hysteria, then turned right onto Hwy 144 and got us safely to Thruston Elementary.

There, we were greeted by our principal, Mr. Pendley. He was standing outside waving all the busses away. School was cancelled after all. Once again, all the kids on Mrs. Keown's bus, fresh off what we thought was a near-death experience, started screaming again, "NO!!!  We're gonna die again!"  Looking back, we were complete drama kings and queens. Obviously, we didn't die. Mrs. Keown, because she was an amazing driver and took exceptional care of us always, got each and everyone of us- even my friend Jennifer, who was the last house on the right at that county line I mentioned- home safely.

This memory is hilarious. Well, it wasn't funny at the time, but it is now for a variety of reasons. I remember getting in trouble on Mrs. Keown's bus. I was quite the Casanova when I was elementary school. I had a harem of girlfriends. In the 5th grade, my friend Jennifer Gilmore and I decided to take our previously platonic relationship to the next level. That's right, Friends! We decided to hold hands in public. GASP!! So, we climbed up onto Mrs. Keown's bus, sat next to each other and held hands so all of our classmates could see that we had temporarily fallen in love. Well, that romance came crashing to a halt like Thruston's version of Romeo & Juliet. Someone ratted us out and, the next day, we were lectured by our 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Valdez. She told us that someone saw us holding hands on Mrs. Keown's bus and how inappropriate that type of public display of affection was. Uh, that was barely first base.

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I think my absolute favorite memories from Mrs. Keown's bus are the ones she may prefer I not share. But, honestly, I have to because they are truly what I remember most about riding her school bus. Honestly, in Mrs. Keown's very clever way, she taught us a great deal about personal responsibility in allowing us to do something most drivers would not have. Because her school bus route was off the proverbial beaten path, there weren't any other school bus drivers around once she cleared Thruston by a couple of miles. So, if we behaved on the bus, she would occasionally reward us with-wait for it- paper wad fights!

She didn't allow us to do this often, but when she did they were EPIC!!!  When we were in the clear, Mrs. Keown would give us the 'GO!' and Bus #199 would turn into a virtual war zone. There were paper wads flying everywhere. Kids were getting thwacked in the heads, arms, backs, faces and feet. It was AWESOME!  We lived for those paper wad fights.

Of course, Mrs. Keown issued very important rules we had to follow to keep our paper wad fight privileges. We couldn't throw them at her and, most importantly, we had to pick up after ourselves when we were finished. That was brilliant!  Those paper wad fights were a double dose of education and training. We earned the right to have the fights for being good on the bus and we learned the importance of taking responsibility for our own actions. We could throw paper wads and have fun as long as we picked up after ourselves when we were finished. GENIUS! Look, I am 52-years-old now. Those memories have stuck with me for over forty years.

We got to reunite and reminisce on National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day.

Mrs. Keown was the best!

The truth is this. I have tons of memories from my time at Thruston Elementary School. My classmates and I agree that our years at that school were some of the best of our lives. But, I have to tell you. Because of Mrs. Keown, some of my fondest memories during my years at Thruston were also made riding Bus #199 to and from it.