A BUS NAMED GRACIE
A number of years ago, I had a great part-time job driving a charter bus for The Free Enterprise System. 
I worked mostly local charters and was one of the few part-timers that was assigned my own bus. I have always felt that a pet, a vehicle or a piece of equipment that you enjoy using should have a special name. My bus was known as “Gracie”.

One day, my fellow drivers and I were notified that a special convention was coming to Indianapolis. It was a large group of charter bus companies and Free Enterprise was both a member and host company. This was going to involve quite a bit of work for our drivers.

I was instructed to drive a group from the convention center to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a special dinner. I was assigned to drive a new bus that was on display at the convention. I had never driven a bus of that make or model, so I arrived early to check it out.

I met with a couple of employees of the bus manufacturer and they gave me a quick tour of the vehicle while explaining a few of the small problems that had surfaced; however, he assured me that there were no major problems. He then mentioned that several buzzers and red lights might appear on the dashboard. I started and shut down the bus several times, but no buzzers or lights came on.

Soon after my brief orientation, my passengers boarded the bus and we were on our way. Within a few blocks, the buzzers and lights started vying for my attention. I began flipping switches and trying to remember what those guys had advised me to do.

While stopped at a traffic light, I tried to minimize the buzzing noise. The car to my right had made a right turn; so after looking both ways, I took off.

At about the time that I was halfway into the intersection, I realized the light was still red. Since I didn’t see any moving vehicles on the cross street, I decided that it might be safer to proceed than to slam on the brakes. I glanced into my rearview mirror just in time to see a police car peek out from behind the bus and start flashing its red and blue lights.

I pulled to the curb and quickly began explaining my situation. The female officer laughed and said that she had pulled me over to see if I knew something that she wasn’t aware of about dealing with traffic lights. She didn’t ask for my license or the vehicle registration, saying that she saw me check traffic in both directions and that I had not placed anyone in danger.

I know that the owners of our company were embarrassed, and I took a bunch of flack during the dinner and the remainder of the trip.

Several years later after I had started driving a school bus for Beech Grove City Schools, I began picking up a young kindergarten student on my route. Parents are asked to be at the bus stop for their kindergarten and first-grade students. This young boy’s mom looked sort of familiar to me. One day I noticed that his mom was wearing a police officer’s uniform.
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Yes! I was pretty sure it was her. I waited a few weeks before I asked her if she ever patrolled on the near northwest-side of Indianapolis. We laughed and hugged. We started relating our story to anyone that would listen.
She and her family moved out of state a few years later. I’m sure that occasionally she still retells our story.

AN INTERESTING WEEK
Last week was very interesting due to three happenings.
Katie Gearlds
The main subject of a big sports story concerned a young lady that I first met when she was a student at Beech Grove High School. Katie Gearlds became the best girls’ player ever at the school and the best in Indiana in 2003. 
After high school, she studied at Purdue and continued playing basketball as her skills always improved. She then played professional basketball for a few years with the Seattle WNBA team, and then played overseas.
I enjoyed watching her play. It was also fun to connect with her when she was back home in Beech Grove. We mostly passed each other on the streets as I was driving the school bus and she would be driving her bright yellow Mustang. We would laugh and wave.
Katie served as the women’s basketball coach at Marian University for several years, winning two NAIA national championships.
It was announced late last week that Katie will be the next head coach at Purdue University. She will be associate coach next season with coach Sharon Bersyp who is to retire after the 2021-2022 season. I think that it is so cool for them to be able to work together and have a year of transition.
My old house, the Longacre Bar

​I began receiving cellphone calls from friends informing me that my “old house,” the Longacre Bar and Grill, was on fire. Stuart and I jumped into our car and drove up to see what was going on.
It was a bit scary. We pulled up and found a safe place to park; the entire parking lot and street were filled with fire trucks. I quickly found out that an electrical fire in the basement had been contained. The business is undergoing an ownership change and quite a bit of remodeling and maintenance was going on.
I was told that it might be a few months before the bar and grill may be able to reopen. Lots of work needs to be done. It was sad for me to look inside the front door and see a hole chopped into the floor. The firemen needed to do that to get a water hose to the basement.
Visiting our friend Christi
I’m very happy to say that Stuart and I made our first visit inside a nursing facility in more than a year due to Covid-19 restrictions. With lesser rules, we were invited to visit Manor Care Health Services where a lady, Christi, resides and is known as Stuart’s girlfriend.
This visit, we met with Christi and her mother, Pam, in a large family room. Stuart sat on my lap and we sat close to Christi. It was so special to see their reaction to reconnecting with each other.  
We were allowed to visit for about 15 minutes. Due to Covid-19, the only way we could see each other before was through her room window. This visit was much better.
Always at the end of each of our visits before, I would try to have a stern look and then I would tell Christi to behave. She would always say, “No!”  That happened again last week.
She also demanded that we arm wrestle. Over the years, we have done that many times but it was always my idea. This time it was her idea. The results of the battle were exactly the same. She always wins.
Stuart and I both so very much enjoyed our visit and we hope that it will happen again real soon. Thanks to Christi, Pam, and the ManorCare staff.

WELCOME SPRING

I am sure enjoying watching Spring 2021 slowly slide into place. It is fun just to watch our yard start turning green. We have some flowers that have popped up and beautiful yellow buds have opened up. I also noticed a few buds were a bit upset with those cold overnights last week. They were all smiling again last Sunday.
Our neighborhood is a one-mile circle and we seeing more walkers, joggers and bike riders out last weekend. As soon as I finish this article, I’m going to hop on my tricycle and take a ride.

There is also lots of yard work going on and a couple of neighbors have started some great backyard projects. My wife, Lyn has been working on her garden for several weeks.  She has a small greenhouse setup in our garage. Lots of seeds have been planted and have started growing. In May, she will move these little plants to her garden.

Our chicken girls are very excited about the warm, sunny weather. They love to have Lyn open the gate and allow them to roam around our yard. They have a special location up close to our house, behind some very large flowers where they totally enjoy taking dust baths. That area is under the roof overhang and it is always very dry soil. They love it.

Once the girls have finished their dustbathing, they quite often step up onto our back patio and shake all the excess dirt onto the floor. Lyn has mentioned that she is considering adding to the flock. We might invite four very young chickens to move here and join the fun.

This entire winter passed and I didn’t attend one basketball game. We generally attend a couple of Southport High School games. My high school class is still very close and for several years we have all attended both a football game and a basketball game. The Southport Athletic Director would always assign us a special location and recognize us on the public address system during the game. We didn’t attend any games this year. Hopefully that will change by next fall.

I always attended some of the Beech Grove Boys and Girls basketball games, too. I still have many friends that work in the school system. I also am connected with students that rode my school bus. A couple are basketball players. I really hated missing all those games.

We just found out that Dr. Paul Kaiser, Superintendent of Beech Grove Schools, is retiring at the end of March. Stuart (Our therapy dog) is really upset about this. They have been good friends for a long time. Stuart and I have done a reading program at a couple of the schools for several years. We are both hoping to begin that program again soon.

I also missed attending any of the Marian university Women’s Basketball games. Former Beech Grove student and basketball player, Katie Gearlds is the Head Coach of this team. This was her eighth year as head coach. Over the years, her team has won two national championships. It is so much fun to attend her team’s home games. During her time at Marian, she has coached a couple of players that attended Beech Grove High School.

Katie was just selected to be an assistant coach for the 2021 USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team.
Stuart and I have been in contact with the nursing facilities that we have visited for many years. We have been advised that if things continue to improve, we might be allowed some cautious visitations in the near future.
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The Perry Township/Southport Historical Society has also been without meetings for many months. Plans are in the works to begin to have meetings again starting in May.

Back in October, I was contacted by a former Southport High School graduate who lives in Arizona and is putting together a new television show.

Sue Thurman is a Butler University graduate and has lived in California, too. She has worked in television, movies, and plays as an actress and vocalist. And she also has much experience in producing and directing.
She explained that this television show, in the planning stages, was going to be based on a small western town named Southport. It will be a fun, easy to watch program that will contain music and laughter in each episode.
 
This Southport also will have folks living in the town that might have names we remember - Perry Township early settlers like Mary Bryan and Jeremiah Gray. Each has a school named after them.
I have forwarded Sue several stories and pictures and a copy of the book by Casey Smith titled, Images of America, Perry Township. I have stayed in e-mail contact with Sue and we have talked on the telephone several times.

Sue has sent me a copy of the pilot script for the show. I was asked to review the historical aspects of the script and offer corrections.
 
I had noticed, while reading the script, that there were a few times when a character was talking, they might break into a line of a song. I enjoyed that and she said that most everyone working on the program has a musical background. She also encouraged me to properly sing any music lines that I came across while reading a script. We each laughed at that.

She also told me that she had always enjoyed performing songs associated with Liza Minnelli. At some point, something connected to Liza and her music could appear in the western town of Southport.
As soon as she spoke of Liza Minnelli, my memory shot back to the time that I had the opportunity to see her in concert in Indianapolis. As my wife and I were walking to our seats, someone shouted my name. It was Ron Keller whom I hadn’t seen for several years. We talked for a while before the orchestra began playing. I let Sue know about seeing Liza in concert and connecting with my friend but did not reveal his name.

Later in our phone conversation, Sue asked me about my past history with school buses. We had a discussion about Perry Township’s first female school-bus driver, Emma Glenn. She explained to me that the stagecoach company based in the town of Southport might hire their very first female driver and that her name probably would be Emma Glenn. That would be so cool.
During our discussion about Perry Township school buses, Sue told me about her favorite school-bus driver. She explained that he was very good with the kids; then she tole me he drove bus number 27 and his name was Fred Keller.
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I was stunned. Fred Keller was the father of Ron Keller. Yes, the same Ron Keller that I was just telling her about while we were talking about Liza Minnelli. I’m sure that I was babbling when I tried to explain the connection of a father and his son in our different tales.
I told Sue more about Ron Keller and she said she would like to talk with him. I enjoyed our lengthy conversation and am still amazed at the connections we are uncovering.