I was driving up Ramsey Road the other day, and after a stoplight, I ended up behind a school bus.

Not an unusual occurrence, but it did bring back mostly fond memories of all the miles I rode on one back in the day.

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When I started first grade, we lived in the country, and as such my twin brother and I had to ride the bus about 10 miles to our drop-off point, which was about seven gravel-road miles from our ranch.

Riding the bus at such a young age opened your eyes to the behavior of older students. Depending on the bus driver, all sorts of mayhem might play out.

Usually the cool high schoolers would commandeer the back seats, and the cool wannabees always gravitated toward the rear as well, as if assembling at the feet of some higher being. The indifferent kids would take up the middle and the tots like me found real estate near the front.

I remember there was always much commotion in the back of the bus while it was rolling, and the driver's eyes shifted constantly between the road and the large rear-view mirror above his head. A stern glare from many drivers was enough to calm the situation down in many cases, but there were times the bus actually stopped and the driver would journey rearward to hand out a lecture on proper bus behavior.

As I got older, I naturally moved toward the back, making friends among the wannabees and seeing what all the fuss in the back of the bus was all about.

I witnessed freshmen being hazed, often getting their faces adorned with a lipstick "F" and their hair sprayed into wicked 'dos, so much so that their parents would barely recognize them when they hopped off.

Moving into high school, my bus time exploded, as I was involved in sports and music events. A favorite pastime became penny poker, with one of my classmates making a makeshift card table with a nice little ante dish glued into the middle.

With the table wedged between the two seats second from the rear, we could accommodate up to 12 players. Many pennies changed hands over the years, and I am sure the bus driver was glad we didn't come up with something far worse and more noisy than poker.

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But back to the kids on the bus on Ramsey. I was impressed with their behavior. No one seemed to be acting up, and one of the kids in the back even wiped the moisture off the rear window so the driver could see through.

Eventually I drove up beside the bus and passed, with no comments barked out the bus window and barely a notice of my existence. This move made me remember the various moons that I viewed doing such a maneuver back in the day.

I always did my parents proud by not providing a moon on a day (or night) when none was present in the sky. Mostly because I was a tad shy and I never had that defiance gene that would ensure pulling off such a move.

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Homeschoolers definitely miss out on a big chunk of the public school experience by not having a bus to ride. They'll never get to experience that back-teeth-floating for hours feeling when you forgot to make the bathroom break before departure (with all your buddies doing everything they can to cause an "accident"). They miss out on the daily banter and gossip that the bus ride allowed. Oh, and the freshman hazing.

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All in all, it was a mindless part of your day - right up until the time the yutz across from you gave you a wet willie.

Jerry Hitchcock, a copy editor for The Press, hasn't stepped foot on a bus in decades, and for good reason. He can be reached at 664-8176 Ext. 2017, or via email at [email protected].