The Graham Leader (Graham, Tex.), Vol. 135, No. 51, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 9, 2011 Page: 3 of 14
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Lifestyles
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Graham Leader • 3A
940-549-8000
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A different kind of snow adventure
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Snow is everywhere
When a winter storm dropped seven inches of snow on Graham last week, school was cancelled for four days. In the
old days, school went on as usual, but those riding buses still had quite an adventure. (Photo by DavidRupkalvis)
$1495
Select Group
SOI Elm St. • Graham,TX • 940-S49-333S
)ff? Bus kids could walk
the middle of class
: into trouble. The
ler policy these
Drives students of
chat privilege.
“We liked gc;-- ”
Brown said. “
venture,
hard time
BOAZ?
Further Reductions on
Men’s & Womens’Apparel
: to sit in the
because the
1,” said
good for
le heater
5254,h Street-Graham, TX-‘
www.newtonsjewek
314 Cherry St ♦ Graham, TX | |j
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Lizzy Maberry, a 10-year-old fifth grader, displays
her shortened hairstyle after a session with stylist
Priscilla Cusenbary. Maberry grew her hair out for
two years before getting a haircut for the Locks of
Love program. The organization makes wigs out of
real hair for children who have cancer.
(Photo courtesy of Kandy Maberry)
ffl 1 1 m
Authentic Chinese Cuisine ~
j,| 1314 Cherry St ♦ Graham, TX |,
girls — elemen-
included — were
>wed to wear pants
under dresses, moth-
>ugh of a way to keep
girls from catching
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Silk Flower
Arrangements
Candy
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payof
in during
and not get i
bad weathc
days dep1
that privih
‘V students paid for
Every time the bus
med the door, frigid
d their legs.
* Diamondback
APainting
NickRosandich - 940-745-0764
But Murray;
their fun. Ev
driver open
air blasted
And to make the cold more
unbearable, some buses were
not equipped well for winter
weather.
“The door on our bus
wouldn’t shut all the way, so
our bus driver, Mr. Charlie
Wright, used a rope and stick
to keep it shut,” said Brown.
“He jammed the stick in be-
tween the door and bottom
step to keep the door closed.
Then he pulled on the rope
to let every kid on the bus.”
Other technical problems
turnedthe bus into a portable
freezer.
“Little kids got
front of the bus I
heater was so bad,
Brown. “It was only g<
the first two rows. The
was almost useless the whole
winter.”
Because
tary girls
not al lox
except 1
ers thoi _
their girls
pneumonia.
“Our mothers made us
wear pants under the dress,”
Brown remembered. “I was
embarrassed to death.”
Unlucky students wore plas-
tic bread sacks attached with
rubber bands on their feet.
Bus drivers drove impassable
roads so successfully that the
majority of buses made it to
town with no mishaps.
But if students receh
lucky break, the bus became
stranded in a snowy ditch.
Much to the irritation of the
bus driver, students actu-
ally cheered when the bus
became stranded. Strong
farm boys, including football
players and older girls, were
recruited to help.
“I remember that my broth-
er, Danny Dixon, got to sit in
the driver’s seat while the
older kids had to help the bus
driver push the bus,” Brown
said. “Danny had to rev up
the motor and reverse over
and over while they rocked
the bus back and forth.”
Even when the bus was dis-
abled, a handful of younger
students made it to school
on time thanks to good Sa-
maritans.
One incident happened
when a Murray resident man-
aged to successful inch up a
steep hill east of the Brazos
River along the Murray route.
Thanks to the help, a handful
of students arrived at school
on time, much to their deep
di sappo intment.
When the weatherman
predicted a Texas blizzard,
parents made a s pec ial tri p to
town to pickup their children
rather to risk letting them ride
home on the bus.
My dad made a special trip
to East Ward Elementary in
his unlicensed Jeep pickup.
Ordinarily, he only used the
faded red Jeep to make the
rounds of pumping leases.
The primitive vehicle had
no heater, and frigid drafts
blasted through a large hole
around the gear shift. But the
Jeep’s worst problem was
that it had no brakes.
My dad halted at stop signs
and red lights by shifting into
low gear and dodging the j eep
into a snow drift.
Riding in that brakeless Jeep
without brakes seemed the
s afest thi ng in the world when
my dad was driving.
Snow days tu rned a monoto-
nous bus ride into an Arctic
expedition.
What was the ultimate
3PP.K.
Siding 8
_ J Seamless
Gutters
5. ®
School rarely c
extreme wintei
the old days.
Graham ISD policies oper-
ated on the requirement
that school buses must run
whether sleet, ice or snow.
“It’s a state regulation to
build two days into the school
calender for bad weather,”
Beau Rees, GISD super inten-
dant said. “Although I don’t
know the exact date,
know that from 1975 t<
1980s buses did not run in
bad weather.”
Such a demand seemed
ridiculous in Young County
communities such as Elias-
ville, Jean and Murray.
“We didn’t miss a day of
school no matter what the
weather was like,” said Marin-
da Brown, who lived on the
25-mile Murray bus route.
Traveling main highways
was hard enough, but driv-
ing on narrow country roads
was worse.
Getting students to school
every day fell exclusively
upon every rural route driver.
Besides snow and ice, buses
crept across unsalted bridges
and climbed up steep hills.
Students looked upon the
drive as a big adventure.
Many hoped that the bus
would slide off the road and
be mired in a snow drift, never
thinking of the dangerous
possibilities.
Yes, students loved the nov-
elty of arriving late to school.
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Rupkalvis, David. The Graham Leader (Graham, Tex.), Vol. 135, No. 51, Ed. 1 Wednesday, February 9, 2011, newspaper, February 9, 2011; Graham, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1323550/m1/3/: accessed May 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Library of Graham.