Riding the school bus in 1978
Вставка
- Опубліковано 23 лип 2023
- Video from inside a school bus from 1978.
Watch as we tag along with the school bus driver and pick up the local kids on their way to school.
Shots of some very cool cars, a fun happy neighborhood and some very busy traffic.
This video last almost 6 minutes.
#schoolbus
The sound of that International school bus with Allison automatic transmission going through the gears sweet music to my ears
My Mom was a bus driver for many, many years…beginning in the early 70s. I remember her carrying me across ditches when it flooded, and watching her put chains on her tires in the Winter. We never missed school. I miss my Mom so much, and I miss these days of yesteryear. ♥️
RIP Mama!
I'm sorry for your loss but happy for your memories.
May your mother rest in peace.
Big hug for u ❤ rest n peace mum
My condolences regarding your mom. She’s in a much better place now.
My grandma was a school bus driver for the special needs school. She drove school buses for 25 years. I miss her so much.
Something I never would have thought I'd see. It's a completely normal, everyday experience just from a different era. Thanks for sharing.
These kids would be 60 years old now
Correct; I was 14 in March of ‘78 and I will be 60 this March. 1978 was the last year I rode the bus…..got a 1971 Honda CL100 that I rode until I got my first car in ‘79……..1970 Dodge Charger R/T.
yep.. I graduated HS in 78.. I'm 63
True. I’m in that group.
You boomers and gen x people we’re children at the time. Young Boomers That became adults were the boomers that did not go to Vietnam. Those Old boomers born in 1950 went to Vietnam and young boomers born between 1957 and 1964 were the boomers that came of age after the Vietnam war ended and came of age in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
@@cheaptrickedhappy 60th birthday to the last baby boomers born in 1963 and 1964.
I love the way these videos are pieces of ordinary days, completely lost in the ocean of time.
Man! Days when everyone looked cool. Even the bus driver looked cool.
I'm curious...what do you think we look like, *now* ? What's so different? (in your opinion)
Except for the nerds, they’re just nerds.
@@bobbyray7558 people were mentally and fashionably different. People back then took more time with their hair even. This era, not so much and not discrediting it. You can tell how the first girl student who got on the bus - sounded so much reserved.
@@bobbyray7558it’s just their nostalgic bias talking.
@@ronniewest838 We put in zero effort these days.
Seeing this on videotape gives it much more immediacy, if that makes sense. It feels more real (and more modern) than had this been on a film reel. I was in Kindergarten in '86 and rode the bus daily. So this era feels very familiar!
Twilight Zone episodes were shot on video at 30 frames per second giving them a you are there feel vs film that is closer to being animation at 24 fps.
For real. The videotape makes it feel like it was recorded in the early 90s not the late 70s.
@@moseswilliams615yeah if they had taken the date off this and asked me when it was recorded I would have probably guessed 1992.
Nah there werent curvy cars in this video.
Yes, I was surprised to see this was recorded on videotape, even though magnetic tape had been around for many years at this point. It does make you feel right there.
For some odd reason, I always liked picking the old school buses when I was in elementary school growing up in the mid to late 90s. We still had a couple of the old square grilled Chevrolet B Series buses that were about to be phased out to make way for the newer Freightliner buses. I remember one of the Chevrolet buses had a manual transmission and a V8. I liked riding that one bus. No air conditioning as well.
Same I rode a late 1980s chevy big block V8 school bus with manual transmission around 2002-2003. Coolest thing ever!
In my time of school (1977-90) the School Buses I rode on were mostly International and some GMC and they all had manual transmission
I remember when school buses had manual transmission
Most of the ones I remember riding were International Loadstars, also mostly manual.
When I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, my city still had some “new look” GM transit busses around from the 60’s or 70’s, with the fishbowl windshields. To ride on them was a total time warp, because the interiors were from another era. Green vinyl padded seats, exposed metal frames, blue tinted glass, white walls with little jet age gold stars printed on them. And of course the distinctive sound of the two-stroke Detroit Diesel engines.
Remember no backpacks! Cover your books with grocery bag book covers and try not to drop them…. Too much.
I remember making book covers out of paper bags. Then you could make crayon art on the covers. We would show off are designs to friends.
Ikr, we had a brand new middle school in 1980, and the lockers didn't get installed till Christmas break. I would've gotten a backpack if my little town had them.
Yep back then backpacks were for sissies
When did backpacks really start to become popular?
@8luvbug Modern school backpacks weren't invented until 1967 and weren't popular in schools until the 1980s.
Yes!! ❤ The 70’s how I truly miss that decade! Love the cars from back then at 4:46 Love that Lincoln Town car👍!
It is nice to go back in time and see school children riding on a bus. I took a school bus every day to school from 1976-1980. Takes me back in time.
You know it's 1978 when new home construction is a split level.
Actually I think they were new in the 50s
@@jeremyroskes5391in PA they were still building them up until the 80s 😂
Hearing that Allison automatic go through the gears takes me right back to the 7th grade, 1977.
Rare for a school bus at that time. The vast majority were manual.
Born and raised here on Kaua'i in '63 this would have been us.
My uncle was our bus driver and he would stop at a old mom and pop store and buy me and my three siblings ice cream on our way home! And he reserved the two front seats for us! He was a huge Hawaiian Man and nobody messed with him! Lol!
Great Memories!
I love the way the motor hummed in all these all international school buses 😅
The old gas-powered International Corn Binders made for pretty good, reliable school buses.
My school switched to diesel-powered buses starting in 1982 and the noise level inside the buses definitely increased, especially for the drivers. In the past couple of years, gas-powered buses have regained popularity (my school switched back 3 years ago) and drivers are happy with the noise reduction. The biggest reason for the switch back to gasoline-powered buses actually is due to the difficulty nationwide of finding and keeping qualified diesel mechanics. With so much electronics these days, mechanics have to be computer technicians as much as wrench turners, which is the same for cars, big rigs, and even farm tractors now.
That is the transmission making the noise. Straight cut gears.
These old vehicles here on road from then bring back memories of 1978 for me to as well while in preschool then.
When I rode the school bus and we passed by road construction crews, one kid would always yell out the window "Off the road, you fools!" cracking us all up. I now realize how dumb that was. 😬
They are fools. 10 guys standing around doing nothing
@@excess.subiefl0w Some of them were just standing around to be sure, but others were working their butts off. 😬
Brings back the memories of riding the bus everyday in the late 80s!
I remember riding school buses just like this. God this brings back so many memories.
Those buses were in the fleet until 1996, when real money started flowing into Mason City Schools, and they bought all new buses.
@2:35 I Love how the rear-ends of Bluebird Buses have stayed virtually the same since the 70’s. A prime example of don’t fix what ain’t broken!
I agree. The BlueBird roof caps are what make a BlueBird bus stand out and look good. Unfortunately, the iconic BlueBird roof caps have been "streamlined" and simplified in recent years -- they look yucky now.
This was the bus in front of him
His bus was a Wayne lifeguard
The bus driver is probably 75-80 now.
Born a year before this video in 77 ❤please bring back the 70’s 😊❤
Nice to see clear archived footage of what school buses used to look like way back.
What A Splendid Year 1978 Was...Splendid Memories...
Rode the bus in the early 80's all through junior high and at the start of high school. And every ride was a fresh new Hell. And watching this video genuinely made my skin crawl. But thank you for the nostalgia! Cheers!
We had a cool bus driver and all of us got along great on the bus. I remember she instalked a car stereo with 6 speakers and kept it on the local top 40 station out of Houston, Texas. 104.1 KRBE. 6:02
@@jerryspann8713now that’s a cool bus driver
For me it was an opportunity (long bus route) to do school work I didn't do the night before :(
I was born in 80. This part: 3:12 "You cant fit 3 on a seat." Reminds me of when I was in middle school in the 90s. You couldn't fit 3 in, but my bus made us since there were so many kids on the route home. Practically falling off the seat if you were unlucky to get the edge.
You rock bro!! Love these time machine videos... Such simpler times.. And I wasn't even born until 91
Same November 1991 here
@@tennillej9601 November 91 here too that's crazy
and here i am… 2001 😭
I was born 1985
May 1991.
Better days.
Agreed.
True but if you were 80 years old, there were more better days
Sure was even though I wasn’t born until 1993, honestly, I wish I was like born in 1963, because then in 1978 I would’ve been at least 15 years old.
That way I could of enjoyed my 20s in the 80s
@@ericthesoldierlol then how would you know if you never even experienced it?
This is so cool to see. The last time I rode a school bus was for the 1973-74 school year, 5th grade. But this is close enough. Back from the days when school buses had gas engines and stick shift. My best friend's mother was a school bus driver in another town in those days. But later in life the shifting and steering aggravated her bursitis and she had to quit.
Anyway, I loved seeing the old cars on the road, like the air-cooled VWs, also the way kids dressed in those days. Cool stuff. Thanks for the upload.
I remember those days, walking about 1/4 mile to get to the bus stop, where we all waited, usually we had about 15 minutes to screw around, but there were also times when the bus came early. Once or twice the bus never came at all, which really messed things up, so we would walk to school. As I got older, I learned about skipping school, so the bus that didn't show up meant I had a chance to walk home and stay there, luckily no one was home during the day.
I walked about 3/4 of a mile to get to the bus stop. When it was really bad outside I got a ride, usually the bus was late then because they drove slowly with snow chains.
Awe the smell of napalm in the morning
This is the year I was born. I'm 44 now.😂
happy early birthday! 🤣 assuming you turn 45 this year!
I was a new born that year too
Like Samantha on "Sixteen Candles" said, "I LOATHE the bus"😂
This is fascinating because I was born in December of that year. Love all your videos! Thanks for posting.
As somebody who records these types of videos today, thank you! This is really awesome to see!
It was nice to see old buses when they were new. A window into the past.
I remember, school kids in the 80s-90s would still have those buses in service. No seat belts was common.
Love this..I started kindergarten that year.
Even when i was in high school from 2004-2008 we never dressed like nice except for picture day.
1978 was my last year to ride the bus; Senior Ike Gatwood was our driver. He looked like Wooderson out of DAZED AND CONFUSED. On my route a block from the school, the driver would go straight through the intersection and I would be home in about 45 minutes because I lived at the end of the route. But if he turned right and ran route in reverse, I’d be home in 5 minutes……and that meant I was home in time for Uncle Zeb’s Cartoon Camp, a locally produced live kids show in Tulsa. Every day Ike would pull up to that intersection and make us scream to decide which way he would choose. He seemed to revel in his power over us…..and every time he chose to go straight, he would look at me in that oversized rear view mirror and have a sinister grin on his face….knowing the pain he was causing me.🤣
Do kids even take sack lunches anymore?
Wow, it's so nice to look back at these times. I was in kindergarten that year.
Love this! Brings back memories of toddler hood in Connecticut back in 1978 when riding a school bus there in preschool to and from school. The dark green seats with the white siding: I remember that as well during my preschool toddler days as well.
I was only 1 so it was another 4 years before I stated riding the bus up in Northwest Connecticut.
I was 5 years old this year and absolutely terrified to get on the bus. LOL. I didn't have a choice, though. Good times.
I used to drive a 1979 International Wayne, but it was 15 years old at the time. Cool to see what it would have looked like new. And I forgot how quiet those old gas buses were when stopped. Almost can't hear the engine running.
Brings back frightening memories of the kids in the back chanting, “wedgy, wedgy, wedgy” 🥹
I was in kindergarten in the 1977-78 school year. I didn't take the bus. I walked to school with the other kids from my neighborhood. In 1st grade, i remember walking home from school alone sometimes. Today a 1st grader would never walk home alone
They actually still have walking groups in Japan, led by a 6th grader, it's pretty rare to ride to school there.
These days a first grader would likely not make it home by himself/herself!
@@lorireece1970
And why do you say that?
I rode on one of those Internationals in 1978 then I drove one when I hit 16-1/2 in 1985.
Those oldies were goodies. I rode International Loadstars from 1971 through graduation in 1984.
First of all, let me just say that I missed you uploading! I hope there are more coming soon! I understand that everybody has a life outside of work, so it is not a rush at all, I’m just saying, I miss your videos that’s all. And the next thing is that I was going to ride the bus but I got open enrolled in my middle school so I couldn’t but it would’ve been so fun I think.
Thank you for putting up these time capsule videos. I rode the bus during this time,first grade,. My childhood was so happy, I didn't want to grow up,honestly.
I was 16 here... now I qualify for social security in 2 months. 😮
The oldest buses I remember riding on in the late 1990's were Mercedes Benz buses built in 1977-78. Here in Australia we just have normal buses not specific to school use, they do route work as well, but the older ones get the lion's share of school bus work.Currently the oldest buses running in my area date back to 2005 and are being replaced at the moment.
Wasn’t that different than riding the bus in ‘98. IDK about nowadays I guess it’s probably the same.
Kids today are packing heat today.
Looks just like today only the Kiddo's are not Armed and considered Dangerous like now.
Love the tilt nose International Loadstar bus.Sounds just like I remember those old V8's.
I was always the kid getting into trouble with the bowl hair cut and bell bottom jeans you saw sitting on the step as soon as the bi-fold doors opened…
It's like the yearbooks came alive! Lol.
That AT-545 transmission sounds so good. The engine too.
That must be a fairly new bus. I started school in 77 and the school bus we rode in was manual transmission with the low back seats. They were putting in sewer systems in my neighborhood and the roads were all dug up. I chipped my front tooth on the low back seat with metal molding. Once the new busses with the high back seats became popular you could hide from the bus driver because he couldn't see you in that mirror as easy with the higher seats. lol !
Probably a 1977 or 1978 International Loadstar.I think the S series came out for 1979
@@emeyer6963 Loadstar 1700
I knocked my teeth a few times on the exposed metal ones but got lucky and no damage.
Me too!
Watching this, that bus smell from 1978 came back...crazy.
Always love your uploads!
The sound and bumpy ride totally bring back the memories 😅
love that authentic whine of the Allison AT-545 Automatic Transmission . i drive a 1980 ford B-700 schoolbus with gas engine and same transmission
Our high school coaches drove our buses. Best not let them see you acting up!!
I love how well-behaved the kids in the bus are. No rowdy kids screaming and shouting at each other, no hardcore gangster rap music blaring from kids' iPhones, nobody fighting or swearing at each other or at the bus driver.
So cool to see. I was only one years old in 78 but still enjoyed seeing this.
I was -14 and i thought it was enjoyable as well.
Great video. I must say the style on busses hasn’t really changed allot correct me if I’m wrong. Maybe new busses don’t bounce around like the older busses did. Only thing different now that I think of it when I graduated in 04 they started putting air conditioners in busses.
I graduated a decade after you and idk where you was going to school but I never experienced A/C in my busses and they were bouncy as a mf. When we refused to sit down and goof around you’d know karma would strike and we’d hit our head of get tossed to the adjacent seat during a turn lol.
@kevindavis4709 Buses have changed dramatically over the years. I've been a bus driver since 1984 and I don't wish to bore you with the tons of changes that have went into buses, but I can't think of any other vehicle that has gotten as many changes. Most are not for the better. The main change I like was when they started putting in roof hatches, as most full-sized buses do not have A/C. If they have air ride, those ride better, otherwise no they still bounce around, like you recall.
You "graduated"? From a _Public Indoctrination Center_ no doubt, as witnessed by your incorrect usage of _allot._ Apparently you were never taught homonyms and homophones. Words such as _Alot,_ _a lot_ and _allot._ And who told you the secondary plurality of _bus_ is "busses" that is preferred over the primary plurality of _buses?_ My gosh, you wreak of a _Public Indoctrination Center._
Wow this is really good quality for 1978. Thanks for uploading this!
Those kids look about my age back in 1978. I was 12 years old.
Same.
Man, the times going to school at this time, even with the worry of cold war fallout
Wonderful footage
This must be in a nice area. We moved to a metro area but we all survived. Nice video.
1978 was the first year I got to ride the bus like a "big kid". It didn't work out so well so they made me ride the "short bus". I got in a fight in that so they made my ride in the station wagon, BY MYSELF! Later in life a became a mechanic who worked on school buses (among other things). Ah, the memories of gasoline engines (leaded of course) spinning at 3500 rpms or better getting about 2 miles a gallon, the driver grinding EVERY gear, and the park brake consisting of nothing but a handle, cable, and a small drum at the back of the transmission. Hope the cable was adjusted tight enough!
Listen to that Allison transmission whine
AT540
This is beautifully restored and looks like it was recorded the other day, wow. Much of what's in this video doesn't look too different from the way things look now. Same 'ol roads, stoplights, and clunky oil-addicted cars. (I was six when I started riding the bus in '79. These kids would've looked huge to me.) I thought 2023 would look less like this and more like The Jetsons, ya know?
At the end I sense a certain level of toughest with these kids you just don't see much today.
Monson, MA 1978 Mrs. Levesque(Janet), now late. Good times! High School!
Seeing old style homes actually being built like new is a trip! I wish I could find these streets on google maps
I remember riding the school bus, 1978-1991. Some time in the early to mid 1980's my school bus driver pulled over one day and stopped the bus. He got off the bus with some twine, and when he got back on he had a large snapping turtle with him. He'd use the twine to tie its mouth shut and legs together so it couldn't move around. I'm an animal lover, so I fear what he did with it when he got home, but that was a unique experience riding the bus :)
I love your channel!
The good ole days!
Bounce bounce, bus drivah, bounce bounce!
I rode buses in the early 1970s. We got a new automatic transmission bus with flat black hood. It was a dream to ride in compared to the old gear jammer with 2 speed rear axle.
I remember how utterly shakey old buses were
yup. The bus would hit a lady bug and it felt like slamming into a curb. Never understood why they even put suspension on them... always felt like a flinstonesmobile or something.
They still are
I remember that awful leaded gas smell our bus always put off back in the late 60's
yeah school buses are still shaky as hell, i remember during school field trips most kids in the bus wanted the bus driver to hit a small bump really fast
@@dutchman063 LOL. I'll take that smell any day of the week over the smell of diesel. I bet you're all for electric, aren't you?
I enjoyed the video. Those were the good old days we all miss.😎
I don't see much of a difference between then and now when it comes to riding the bus
Here before Boomers and Zoomers start complaining about each other.
Tired of it all.
Lol! What the heck is a 'zoomer'?
Yup, even though the kids in this video were likely part of Gen X.
@@bobbyray7558 Gen Z. Google it if you want.
These are amazing videos. Thank you
Many of these bus drivers were teachers too. My bus driver was my Math teacher.
I did took the school bus when I was in preschool through high school. That was 1974-1988. I was 4 years old to get on one bus to another bus for preschool. The bus was a small one even got into a bus that was a van size. I was in preschool when I was 5 years old for another year. I was in special education when I was in the 1st grade through high school. I have a little bit of a learning disability. I’m very normal person and I’m a little bit slower than other kids in my neighborhood. I even kept trying to make friends at 6 years old. I did had a tough time in growing up.
It’s the sound of those old internationals back in the day with that Allison automatic transmission “whine” great piece of nostalgia! We had many international Wayne body loadstars 1700 back in the day in our town.
Ah those squeaks & window rattles took me right back to my days riding in those buses. In NY I rode a schoolbus in the 90s that had a registraion sticker saying it was a 1968 bluebird.
I was 10 back then. All of our drivers were HS seniors. What I remember was fighting for seats, the smell of new school supplies and kids I hated to see get on the bus.
Why would they use high school seniors to drive busses instead of older adults???
Even now, there are a few states left that allow students to drive school buses. According to google, in 1985 there were 12 states that allowed student drivers.
Aww I can still remember the smell of those old school buses!
I would always have horrible butterflies in my stomach on the bus it felt like I was going to jail.
In a way, you were.😉
I took the bus from 1980 to 1982. This brings back memories. Seems so long ago.
1978, age 6, 1st grade. I never rode the bus to school (except on school field day trips, summer camp trips, and softball road trips). I lived too clise to all the schools and had to walk in all types of weather (Mom didn't get her driver's license until 1982). I got sick too much from walking in terrible rain and snow. But walking did strengthen my legs and I became an avid exercise walker.
The movie Grease was released this year. And Saturday Night Fever the year before. Disco was the new big thing.
Watching all these videos makes me wonder how all these kids turned out …..
Wow! Kids surely don't dress up for school like this anymore. All the girls are fully clothed while all the guys are collared up.
Now the girls are wearing hooker clothes
Dang everyone rode the bus back in the day.
Pretty much true. Most places I lived, if you lived more than a half mile away from school you could ride the school bus. Then in the late 1970s school districts started cutting back school bus service to what it is today.
I rode the bus for one year only 1977 it was a part of desegregation and was bussed other side of town to attend a sixth grade center. Anyone hear of this or did this? Maybe only some states did idk
Thanks for the ride 👍
First of all, I thought the buses would like way different, and for a 1978 tape, the graphics are great!