Tommy came home one evening ..I could see he'd been crying and of course, my motherly instinct began to work overtime. I knew inside that someone had done something to make him cry. He was maybe in the second or third grade and we lived out in the countryside ... so, he rode a school bus to school.
I would drive him down from the big hill we lived on ..to the end of the driveway and sit and wait for the bus with him. I never took a chance on someone 'grabbing my child'.... while he stood alone so far from the house. Things like that happened and people never saw their children again (Tommy did go missing for 3 years later in time ...later... I did learn what grief a mother has when her child goes missing... maybe I had a premonition to be so protective). I don't know that I can tell that story even now.... I would have to do it carefully because......it makes that shaky feeling come back again...................
Anyway.... that particular evening when I saw his little face I knew inside I had to be careful of 'how' I went about finding out what had happened. See...Tommy knew his mama and he knew she was very high-tempered ( I was as a young woman and .... especially when it concerned my only child... I would transform into a fighting bear!). He knew that if he told me someone had mistreated him... his mama would be so upset!
I want you to know that I knew this and I also, 'knew how to get that information' from him.... if I could just be patient enough! Patience has never been one of my best virtues! Never.......
This time I was going to be patient though, I was feeling anger at seeing his little face. I began... grinning.. I knew 'how' I was going to do this! It's strange ..when I get angry I began smiling.........
:)))))))))
'Tommy, what in the world happened to your jacket?' The front of his jacket had been ripped completely down the front and ...we'd just bought it the day before! He told me it had caught on the bus seat... I didn't believe that!
I began to be so sweet and talk softly to him and tell him how much I loved him and I never wanted anyone to mistreat him. He still didn't want to tell me! Eventually... he did!
I knew that the next morning I WOULD be on that school bus! These days a person would go to jail if they done that now! I would never do that again... I would go to the school office.... but, then.......I was only aware that my son had been mistreated and instead of thinking it all out... I reacted.
Sure enough ...the next morning came and we waited for the bus and Tommy begging me not to get on it. He had told me that he was being mean and the bus driver who was a young boy... had stopped the bus and had walked back to him.. he jerked Tommy up by the front of his jacket to fuss at him!
I calmly got out of the car and stepped up into that bus and I stood there looking down at the driver in his seat and told him that I understood him correcting my son and I understood that my son was mischievious and could be mean just like the rest of the children on that bus and that... I knew he was supposed to discipline them..........BUT, you jerked my son up physically ripping the front of his new jacket to discipline him... that was just wrong!
I told him that I would be going to take the classes to drive the school bus AND I would be driving his bus in the near future because of his driving habits. He'd already lost control of the bus taking the children down a mountain prior and he'd correct the children by stopping abruptly throwing them against the seats. He never said a word... I calmly got off the bus and promptly began to plan.......
I was going to drive my son's school bus and ..... I meant to do just that!
I did go to the classes to be certified to drive a school bus and did it for a number of years. I was in only one incident ..... and it wasn't my fault.................it was that same bus driver trying to be cute. I was doing just like I told him............I WAS driving that same school bus and I was making sure those children and my son got home safely each day and no one was physically abusing them. One day I was just coming up a steep grade with the bus and he was behind me driving another bus....he
kept on until at the top of the hill he got right up on the bumper of my school bus! I didn't have to worry about reporting him..... when we got back to school that evening.... his bus was taken from him. Someone saw what he was doing and went straight there to the principal's office.
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