My Day Off

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."  Matthew Broderick in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

 During my sixth grade school year my family moved "out in the country” away from down town Guthrie.  Actually, our move was to a farm house just on the outskirts of the city limits of our fair town.  Our small family was growing up and out. Like Daniel Boone is quoted to have said when he left Kentucky for Missouri, "we needed more elbow room."   We were now requiring more room than our two bedroom renter home allowed us.  Even though we only lived "out in the country" for the school year of 1970-71, this move brought many changes to our expanding family.

 One of the new experiences for me was that I would be riding a bus to school for the first time.  Up to this point, my parents had either driven me to school or I had walked.  I remember well when my father "broke the news to us" at supper that Mr. Mac would be taking me and my sister Denise to school on the bus the next day.  I met this announcement with both excitement and trepidation.   I had overheard my friends talk about “The Bus”.  Most of my peers' opinions of “The Bus” had been of apathy and resentment.  I hoped I wouldn’t fall to this same fate of resignation.  I must admit I was kind of excited about the prospects of my new adventure and the new people I might chance to meet.

Waiting for the bus each morning was a chore that I vowed to try and make fun.  For the first time in my life I was able to have a dog.  Trixie became my best friend and constant companion especially as I waited for the bus each morning.  She had an innate ability to know what time we would return home from school each day.  Either Trixie knew what time we would arrive or she did like Forrest Gump did for his son and simply sat there all day and waited for my return.  Trixie was a small dog of cocker spaniel and poodle mix.  She was a cockerapoo mixed breed and the runt of the litter to boot.  She was a dark haired dog with a white patch on her breast like an ascot. Trixie had a regal and winsome mannerism about her.  She would be patiently waiting as Mr. Mac Alexander made his turn off of Haynesville Road on to Highway 79 and pull up to our house with red bus lights flashing We played the same role each day on my return home from school.  She would bark and wag her tail furiously as she yelped at my heels as we made the long trek up our driveway to our home. 

Much to my surprise one sunny spring day, Mr. Mac made his turn but failed to turn on his lights or apply the brakes on the bus.  Trixie turned her head to the side as we drove on by.  Mr. Mac had forgotten to stop for the Haley children’s drop off. 

 My sister, Denise, turned to me with a panic stricken look on her face.  I knew what I had to do.  I was going to have to approach an authority figure and tell him of his mistake.  I steeled my spine and rose from seat and broke the cardinal sin of walking down the aisle of a moving bus.  My movements must have caught Mr. Mac's attention in the rear view mirror.  His eyes became as big as saucers as I walked toward him.  I wasn't sure if his astonishment lay in the realization that he had missed our stop or that I was walking down the aisle of a moving school bus or maybe both.

 Mr. Mac sent me back to my seat with the assurance that he would deliver us safely home at the end of his route.  My Ferris Bueller adventure was set to begin.  I made myself comfortable as my bus rider friends chatted rapidly wanting to know what was going on.  We decided this was to be a new learning experience for me.  I was now going to get to spend more time with them and also see where they lived.  Mr. Mac maneuvered the bus off of Highway 79 on to Tiny Town road.  This farm land of South Todd that I saw for the first time was simply majestic.  The land was flat and fertile with winter wheat spouting up.  Mr. Mac quickly delivered the others children.  First off was Bettye Jo Haskins, then Mildred Bouldin.  I saw the farm that the Shelby children live on next.   Then we came to David Dawson and Judith Choate's stop.  Mr. Mac turn right off Tiny Town Road and we stopped long enough for Billy Lawson Poindexter and his brothers to get off.  After the Poindexters got off and waved bye to me with shouts of "see you tomorrow," we drive past a small farm that was neat beyond description.  The lawn of this farm was almost manicured.  The fences were perfectly placed and painted a beautiful white.  This farm captured my imagination.   The people that lived here had a farm that you read about in stories. 

Mr. Mac dropped Larry Don Dye off last and headed quickly down highway 4 1back toward Tiny Town to make his turn onto highway 79.  Our eye opening little detour last all of 30 minutes.  To me our excursion seemed a trip thru “The Looking Glass.”    After we were dropped, Mother asked why we were late.  I tried my best to sum up all the happenings but I failed miserably to express the change that had been made in me with the beauty of our county that I had encountered for the first time.   Most of all I wish that I could have explained that beautiful farm I saw.  Little did I know that I would meet the owner of that farm one day?  She would have a profound effect on my life but that is another story…………………………for another day……………………For now, Trixie got a red ball to go fetch.