The Mableton Bus Riots of 1974

School kids today do not know how easy they have it.

In most school districts, bus routes are set up for children living one or more miles away from school. Not only that, but in most cases, the bus will pick you up and drop you off right at your door!

No matter that little Timmy just lives two doors down from little Johnny; Timmy will get picked up at his house and the nice bus driver will drive that 50 feet up the road and pick up little Johnny.

Little Johnny gets on the bus and the nice bus driver will begin the long 30 foot trek to pick up little Linda. But wait! The bus driver slams on his brakes. Little Johnny’s mother is running up the road waving little Johnny’s sweater. She hands it to the nice bus driver, they exchange pleasantries, then the journey to pick up Little Linda’s lazy butt begins.

Let’s step into the “way-back” machine and take a trip back in time to 1974 and visit with the Mableton 972 Patterson Heights Riders. 972 was our bus number and Betty T was our driver.

Back then, students had to live 2.5 miles from school in order to be on a bus route. (Little Timmy, Johnny, and Linda probably have never even WALKED 2.5 miles in their lives!)

Our neighborhood was not on the official bus route. Translated, that means we had to go somewhere OUTSIDE of our neighborhood to meet the bus. In our case, we had to walk through a wooded vacant lot, through someone else’s backyard, and through someone else’s side yard to get the corner of Center Street and Mimosa Circle. That was the route for the kids living on Grace Street; the kids living on Luther Drive, which was behind us had an even further walk.

Year after year, our parents complained to whomever set up the bus routes and year after year they were ignored. Until the fall of 1974 when we were informed that our neighborhood was now officially on the bus route.

So that morning, we all gathered outside to wait for the bus. And that brought forth the first argument….where the bus stop would be located. Everyone, of course thought the bus should stop right in front of their house even though we all lived within two to three houses of one another. After much deliberation, it was decided that we would split the difference and have the bus stop at the midway point of our houses.

We waited and talked and waited and talked…and finally we heard good ole’ 972 chugging over on Center Street. We heard it make its usual stops and we began to watch for it at the top of the hill in great anticipation.

And we listened as the bus drove further and further away.

The bus had skipped our neighborhood. So we quickly tracked down a parent who was still at home to see if they could take us to school.

We weren’t sure exactly what had happened, but we would find out that afternoon.

The final bell at Floyd Jr. High School rang at 4pm; we all ran down the hallways and out the front doors to locate bus 972. When we got on the bus, we asked Betty what had happened and why she didn’t pick us up earlier that morning.

Betty said no one had told her anything about the new route and until she had been told to do otherwise, we would continue to be picked up and dropped off at our old stop.

By this time, we were all a little aggravated with the entire situation, so we decided to take matters into our own hands.

When the bus pulled up at our old stop, we remained seated.

Betty looked at us and told us that we were at our stop and to get out of the bus.

We continued to sit. Someone in the back of the bus began singing “We Shall Overcome”. (ok….I just made that part up.)

Finally, Betty figured out that we weren’t moving, so she continued on up Center Street and turned the corner onto Landers Drive. Betty was going to our neighborhood!

That brought up the next big argument…..whose street was going to get picked up/dropped off first. Betty told us we better be glad she was doing this at all and we better get it settled right now.

Since Luther Drive had more kids and were acting like big babies about the whole thing (the whiney “we’ve had to walk further than y’all, there’s more of us, blah, blah, blah) we decided to let them have their way and be picked up/dropped off first.

The Mableton Bus Riots of 1974 ended peacefully.

I just hope Little Johnny, Little Timmy, and Little Linda appreciate our pioneering efforts.