The Bus Shanty

 The Bus Shanty
While waiting to go to school, the only protection from the cold temperatures, the wind, the ice, snow, or rain was a small unheated wooden shanty. It was about five foot by five foot square and seven foot high, solidly built with a slanted roof. The shanty was a central gathering place for the kids from three families. It was out of sight from all three families along Route 711 between Normalville and Indian Head, Pennsylvania.
It did break the wind and kept all of us kids dry, inside away from the elements. Having such a place out of sight from the families would not be tolerated today. Today the school bos stops at every house along the rout even if it is every fifteen feet. But then again, times have changed and the chid’s safety is the greater concern.
Often we would have to climb a mountain of snow to enter the shanty. The piles of snow were mounded there by the diligent snowplow drivers. The snow never actualy made it inside of the shanty unless it was placed there by the winds oor the snow storm.
Clouds of condensed vapor would pour through our mouths as we breathed. Cigarette smoking was considered a cool thing to do and we would pretend that we were smoking cigarettes; the vapor was a “pretend” substitute for smoke.
Eventually the school bus would rumble into view. The loud screech of the brakes announced that our chariot had arrived. The clatter of the door opening would welcome us to enter. We would scramble over the mountain of snow to climb aboard the unheated yellow and black behemoth. After mounting the metal steps of the bus, we would grab the metal hand holds as we hustled down the aisle to sit on an icy vinyl seat. If we hurried, we would actually be able to plop down into a seat we chose before the bus would lurch foreward and hurl us to the back of the bus. The hand holds were absolutely necessary to prevent us from losing our balance. The jerk of the bus would hurl us into a seat and off we’d rumble to school.