Car Stories III – The Bus

This is another in the Sunday Story series – no politics here, just stories about, putting lots of kids (but “always” within the law) in vans!!

New Car

I bought my very first brand new car in 1983 – a Datsun (now Nissan) Sentra. It was a small four door, actually pretty stripped down. I bought it without a radio (I installed my own), and I did purchase one “option” – a rear view mirror (who thought that was an “option”?). But it was small, and quick, and new. Pieces didn’t fall off along the highway like the Volvo it replaced, and there weren’t any holes in the floorboards like the old Squareback.

It was a sweet little car, and I drove it hard for a few years.  But I was soon the head cross country coach as well as the head track coach, and coaching cross country means sending kids on long runs, miles out on the roads.  That got boring – there were only so many ways you could run “out and back” from the school.  If only we could just go out, or just come back, or even go somewhere else to run. It would make the whole process a lot more fun.

Hippie Van

So I needed a vehicle that had some room.  John McGowan, my mentor and the former head cross country coach, was selling his Volkswagen Bus.  If the first thing that comes to your mind is a “hippie van” – you’ve got the right one.  All it needed were flowers painted on the doors to make it complete.  It had the same rear engine that I had in my old Squareback (see Car Stories I), and I was right at home doing any kind of work on it. 

I could fit six kids in the seats, and a few more in the “back”, actually sitting on the engine lid.  So if I sent eight kids from school to the five mile mark, and drove eight more out to the five mile mark to run back – then everyone got a straight five mile run, and I could “supervise” the whole run from the driver’s seat of the VW Bus.   Add my assistant coach’s car to the list, and we could move half of the team, and pick up the other half at the end.

The VW Bus was exactly what I needed. But it had all of the VW “issues” too. The heat was OK, but in the dead of winter the air-cooled engine heating system wasn’t great. On the other hand, it had a rear engine and rear wheel drive, so it would go in the snow. In fact, I learned a serious lesson about that. Just because I could go, didn’t mean other vehicles on the road would.

White-Out

We were driving back from a February indoor track meet at Ohio State (just north of downtown, Columbus), when there was a blizzard, with a white-out on the highway. The wipers barely kept the windshield clear and visibility was a matter of feet. We made it to only a few miles from home, just east of Reynoldsburg on I-70, and we were “putting” along at ten miles an hour or so.

I had no problems controlling the Bus, but the person three cars ahead wasn’t so lucky. He was one of those “drive fast in the left lane in a blizzard” idiots, and spun out in the middle of the road.

The car behind him went left , and the car in front of me went right. I went right as well, and we’d have all been ok, but “spinner” stalled in the right lane. The car in front of me hit the guardrail – and with all four wheels locked up, I slowly slid into his back bumper. Behind us we felt another pretty good thump – the car behind us slid into us as well. Then another car smacked into the back of it.

Speed demon straightened out and took off. And there we were, four cars on the guardrail at the top of a hill in a whiteout blizzard.  The only thing I could think of was a semi-truck coming up the hill, not seeing us through the snow until it was too late.  So I told the six kids  to “Bail Out”, and jump on the other side of the guard rail.

BAIL OUT!!!!

Maybe I said that with a little too much emphasis. The kids popped the sliding door, and went out the side of the Bus like Airborne Rangers hitting the landing zone. Bill, a shot putter, was the first out. He hit ice, and immediately went down. The other kids didn’t have a good view, so they jumped onto Bill’s back, and vaulted over the guard rail. Finally we got Bill to his feet, and all clambered over the side.

 Matt, our team manager, statistician, bookkeeper and all-around caretaker; ran down the hill, climbed a chain link fence, and in this era before cell phones, knocked on the door of the neighboring house to call the police.  It was so cold his bare hands stuck to the top bar of the fencing, and he came back missing pieces of his palms – frozen into place on the fence.  

The car behind us had two women in it.  The driver was pregnant, in pain and panicked.  The impact, slow-speed though it was, drove her stomach into the steering wheel.  Behind them was a car with three high school track kids.  The driver was banged up pretty good.  He broke a rib on his steering wheel when he hit the pregnant woman.  They were also coming back from the meet, headed towards home in Marlington, Ohio near Youngstown. 

Taking Care

As we were tending to the injured, our other team van pulled up, full of kids.  I loaded my group into it.   We were only a few miles from school, and it was very cold and windy so I sent them on their way. Matt stayed with me to help out with the injured.

It took a while for the police, and then the ambulance to finally get to us. The Highway Patrol officers weren’t interested in writing tickets, they just wanted to get the injured to the hospital, the cars out of the way, and the passengers out of the cold. I was all in favor of that. I ended up with Matt and the two Marlington kids in the Bus, and we headed towards home. The Bus was a little dented, but nothing could stop it!

I dropped Matt at his house, and the two Marlington kids and I went to the hospital to check on their buddy. The ER bandaged up his chest and released him, but their car wasn’t going anywhere. The blizzard was getting worse, and they all ended up spending the night at the house with me. Thank goodness Mama Linda’s pizza place braved the blizzard that night as well.

No Left Turn

The VW Bus lasted for a few more years, but like all VW’s, rust was its ultimate demise. We were driving to a local meet, when all of a sudden the Bus wouldn’t turn left. It seemed to do right just fine, but no matter how much the steering wheel turned, straight and right were the only two choices.

I managed to get it home – as long as you can go around the block you can find a “right” way, but I lost all confidence in the vehicle.  We had an annual summer Cross Country yard sale at the house, and I put a sign in the window.  Some guy pulled up, put $250 down, and stuck a clamp on the steering tie-rod.  He drove off down the road – and that was the end of VW Bus era.

Next Sunday Story time  – I’ll tell you about the Big Blue Van!!!!! 

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
• New to the Pack – 8/21/22
• Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22