My father had sold his daily pick-up milk route. This route entailed him picking up milk from farms in the Acton / New Palestine area and delivering it to a milk processing plant in Indianapolis to be bottled. He was going to open a new Sunoco Service Station in the Edgewood area.
During the time the business was being constructed, dad was in training at a company-operated service station on West Washington Street. It was a 24-hour station and in training he was required to work various shifts. I remember going to work with him a couple of times on the overnight shift.
During our school’s construction process and when school was in session, I would get off the school bus at Epler and Madison Avenue in the afternoon and walk home with several classmates. It was exciting to watch the progress of our new family business.
During dad’s time in training on West Washington Street, he met and became friends with George Frye. He was also in training to open a new Sunoco Service Station. George was a native of Loogootee, Indiana and was living in Brownsburg. His new station was located in Brownsburg.
Both of the stations opened at about the same time. We stayed in contact with George and several other Sunoco stations in the area. Bill Singer had one of the very first Sunoco stations in the city. White’s Sunoco was also on Madison Avenue near the famous Teepee restaurant.
Several years later, George gave up his business and came down and worked with us. He was a great guy and we worked so well together. It’s amazing to me the goofy things that we remember about someone.
George had two types of work uniforms: one for warm weather and one for the cold days. There were two days a year that George made a big deal about changing from cool uniforms to warm ones and about six months later back to the cool ones. He had specific days marked on his calendar and it was a big deal. Once the change was made, he wore that type of uniform regardless of the weather. He would have still been wearing the warmer things had he been around and working last week.
I had lunch with some friends last week and noticed that I was still wearing warmer clothing unlike most of the other folks in the restaurant. I quickly thought of George.
When we started building our small fleet of school buses in Perry Township, George obtained his license and became a school bus driver. He and his wife moved from Brownsburg to a home just off of Edgewood Avenue.
A few years later, we relocated our business to a larger facility in downtown Southport. George stayed with us. I learned so much from him. The building that we operated from in Southport is now known as Long’s Bakery.
Several years later, we sold our school bus fleet to Perry Township Schools and both George and my father went to work for the township and took care of the buses. They both retained those positions until they retired.
George and his wife moved back to Loogootee after they retired. I really miss both my father and George. I often remember something they taught me or helped me with, and those memories are so special.
A group of current and former township school bus drivers have a monthly breakfast. We really enjoy remembering our former friends and co-workers.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at fdshonk@aol.com.