News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Miss Judy has been driving a school bus in Sisters for 27 years, watching generations of Sisters students grow up. Two of her fellow drivers once rode her bus.
Judy Mason has been ferrying Sisters kids to and from school for almost three decades. In fact, two of the current bus drivers with the Sisters School District rode to school on a bus piloted by "Miss Judy."
"My first bus driving job was driving for Little Cloverdale School," Mason recalled. "That was part of Redmond (School District)."
She took the job after a neighbor asked her if she'd be interested. Mason demurred, but her neighbor reminded her that she'd been driving a motorhome across the Santiam Pass while her home in Sisters was under construction.
"She goes, 'Judy, if you can drive a motorhome, you can drive a bus,'" Mason said. "And that made perfect sense."
With that qualification under her belt, Mason took an exam and became a bus driver, and she's never looked back.
Miss Judy started when she was a mother of young kids and the morning-afternoon split schedule suited her to a 'T.'
"It's a great job," she said. "It really is. The pay is good, the kids are fun. They keep you young. They're a challenge. Life would be pretty darn boring if I wasn't doing this."
A lot has changed since Miss Judy first took the wheel. For starters, it takes a little more than experience driving a motorhome to qualify. Training has become much more regular and rigorous.
"That is a good thing," Miss Judy said.
The buses themselves are much better, too.
"I drove a stick shift (at first)," and I had to double-clutch. That wasn't fun. When you have kids on the bus, you don't need that."
Nowadays, the buses have automatic transmissions and are much easier to drive.
"And the drop-down chains; boy was that a godsend," Miss Judy said. "Just push a button and down they come."
Miss Judy loves watching generations of student riders grow from kindergarten to high school and she enjoys working with the crew of drivers, mechanics and staff.
"It's like a family," she said. "We worry and we care about each other and the hazards we have on the road. It's a real nice place to be. As the senior driver, I'm kind of the mother hen of the works."
Even after nearly three decades behind the wheel in Sisters, Miss Judy has no notions of retirement.
"I'm healthy and I'm still doing it and I'm going to keep doing it as long as they want me and need me."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)