THE WHEELS ON THE BUS

by Emeline Bluestocking

It’s that time of year again when buses are rolling. There was a bus driver in the county that I remember received recognition for his flawless driving record back in 1938.

“Jim Jones, who drives the Burrville and Huffman school bus into Sunbright School, has not had an accident in seventeen years. Parents of children on his route should indeed feel their children are safe in his keeping.”

Pictured is Jim Jones, wife Lourenia Galloway Jones, sister Ruth Jones Land

Who of us doesn’t not treasure old family heirlooms? I remember a gentleman living outside Sunbright had built a case where he kept articles handed down in his family for generations. Among these was an old book entitled, “New American Spelling Book and Juvenile Preceptor”. His grandmother was born in the early 1800’s, and this book was an old family treasure as early as she could remember. The first page begins with a description of the good schoolboy who washes his face before starting to school, who doesn’t forget his books when leaving for school, who doesn’t play on the way, who spends no time in idle pleasure, etc. Its pages abound with pithy sayings and precepts, interspersed with the correct spelling of words and their definitions. Two chapters of the New Testament are also included.

Then among other treasures in the collection were “Town’s Revised Edition, Fourth Reader”, 1847; E.H. Butler & Co.’s, “The New American Pronouncing Speller”, printed 1872; “Ray’s New Practical Arithmetic”, 1877, with problems just as knotty as those which kept many a student’s grade down in later years.

Until next time!

Emeline