On a rare gloomy raining day in Arizona last week I decided it was time to try singing to my passengers. I warned them ahead of time that I was going to do it and as I tuned up my voice on the PA system I watched them intently through the passenger mirror.
I chose "The Silly Worm" song that adequately demonstrates my vocal range and it was only after I began singing that they seemed to believe that this was really happening. In their young lives I guess they had never experienced a bus driver herding a forty foot bus down the road at 45 mph driving with one hand while singing to his students. There are eight speakers mounted in the metal roof of the bus and the acoustical feedback was amazing. It seemed like I was singing in an opera house.
My first group in the afternoon are the 7th and 8th graders. They looked on with amazement and generously gave me a sitting ovation and asked for an encore when I finished.
My second group in the afternoon are junior high students. There were a group of girls sitting mid-bus that were particularly interesting to watch. The look on their faces changed from embarrassing disbelief to studied delight at a singing bus driver. One girl immediately called someone on her cell phone and held it up to share the event. This bus load was much more reserved in there reaction at the end like they were searching for the proper response to a singing bus driver. It might have been easier if I had put a can up front with a sign for "tips".
A surprising personal observance as I was singing I noted how often my voice sounded like my brother Jerry's. I almost wondered if he had dropped in to sing along. EB
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4 comments:
My dad would have loved that, and I wouldn't be surprized if he was there.
I would have loved to be in attendance in the yellow opera house.
You are a gift to your community and to your passengers. They will write about you in years to come! Can you imagine what they told their parents?
I wish I rode your bus!
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