Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Old School Buses and Public Transportation

-click to enlarge-

Pictured is Guy Mink of Pratts and his bus he owned and used for school children delivery and other purposes. There were several privately owned buses that operated to all the schools in the area including BHS. The other people in the photo are not identified. This might have been taken on an outing when he used the bus for public transportation.

DON McKIBBEN writes:

That looks like one of the buses (Guy) owned, at one time he owned 2.....it looks like an early '50's Ford....before '55. There were 3-4 similar privately-owned buses in the Baldwyn area at the time that were used during the week to transport students to school, then take those of us without private transportation to Baldwyn for shopping on Saturdays.....also Jim Barnett from the Friendship area and at least one other one from the Jericho/Geeville area that I remember.

I also remember that the Town of Baldwyn merchants subsidized these bus owners weekly for this bus service, plus each rider paid a small amount to the driver......it seems like the purchase price of SATURDAY $ TICKETS by the merchants included the $'s for the bus owners PLUS the $'s for the weekly drawings. I think I also remember that the bus owners were paid annually by the School District for the transport of students during the week....others may remember more.

Guy's bus provided an additional service on Saturdays......after all the buses arrived in Baldwyn from other areas, Guy would then drive his bus to Tupelo, charging an additional amount for that round trip. The bus would return to Baldwyn in time for those Tupelo shoppers to board the other buses to their homes.....I remember Guy having to discontinue that service when the Tupelo merchants stopped paying him. I probably rode to Tupelo more than most, as I was actively involved in the Lee County 4H Club and we had our meetings on Saturdays in Tupelo at the City/County Building......which also contained the first building elevator I had ever ridden....complete with a full-time operator ! .....(I recall) many more stories about being allowed to travel TO TUPELO WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION AT A VERY EARLY AGE !

Also, I now remember at least one other bus that delivered shoppers to Baldwyn from the East side.....one of the Peters brothers....either Orvile or Tulon at one time drove a bus from the Marietta area.
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Carl Houston: I also had an uncle who had such a bus for hire to the schools and for private transportation; Cliff Tapp had a route to the Ingram Church, Brice's Crossroads, and West Geeville areas. If you can recall, it was the blue one - being an Air Force vehicle in its beginning service. All the others were yellow, of course.
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Photo courtesy of Ellen Mink.

34 comments:

  1. Looks like Mrs. Magers (teacher) behind the girls to Mr. Mink's right.??

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  2. I rode Mr Mink's school bus every day for all the years I was in school in Baldwyn. I also remember, when I was younger, riding his bus with my mother to town on Saturday morning, spending the entire day, and then riding it back home that nite.

    Lots of fun memories of the toy shelves in Grishams five and dime, and Eptings; the double feature movie (15 cents to get in, 5 cents for a coke, and 10 cents for pop corn.), then after the movies, walking up and down the packed streets meeting and greeting.

    What I remember most about Mr Mink's bus though, is the smell of 35 to 50 sweaty school kids crammed into a small space on a hot September afternoon. Fortunately I lived less than a mile east of town and did not have to endure it for very long.

    I also remember that we never had any disruptive behavior from the kids on Mr Guy's bus. While he was a quiet and kind man, we knew who was in charge and when he said sit down you'd better get your butt in a seat!

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  3. As I recall, Mr. Guy Mink carried us on our senior trip to Pensacola, Fl in 1957.

    Henry

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  4. And how many times, I wonder, that he took a load of us to Wilson Park in Okolona?

    I recall at best, the passenger cost for one of those trips was 1-2 dollars, no more.

    Great times on the way and back in those old busses!

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  5. Also, an e/mail from the Lytals mentioned that they think the girl to Mr. Guy's left is Sue Downs Houston.

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  6. Definitely looks like Sue. Is that Mary Lee Michael in the striped dress?

    I road Guy's bus from 1950 to 1954. We lived within sight of Phil and the Coopers but had to cross several pasture fences to get to Billy and Joe Allen's house where we caught the bus.

    Sometimes I would get to sit by Brenda Crabb and Gloria Jean Cooper.

    Phil, didn't Loyce Harbor's son ride our bus?

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  7. Might Be Mary Lee, Milton. Think you are right. Could the girl with camera be B.J. Bryson? and Sandra Poole to her left?

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  8. I think you are definitely right about Sandra and that may be Brenda with the camera.

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  9. Milton, I'm sure that Mike Harbor rode "our" bus when he started to school, but, you are about five years older than me (I know that because you are the same age as my sister, Gloria.) and Mike is at least eight to ten years younger than me. So, I don't think he would have been on the bus with either of us.

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  10. Obviously couldn't have been Mike. But Loyce was about the same age as my mother so I wonder if he had an older son.
    I remember a kid about my age who lived across the road from Bonnie Allen just east of your house. He and I used to swap comic books in the early fifties.

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  11. Milton, could his last name have been Kitchens? Gloria said she had a friend, Jackie Sue Kitchens, that lilved there for a while.

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  12. I think that's definitely Sue Houston and Sandra Poole, but would not bet my lunch money on the identity of the others. By the way, weren't "pedal pushers" spiffy!

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  13. This is off-topic, I know, but does anyone know what "Hambone"s real name was? The shoeshine guy at Lampkin's.

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  14. I believe it was Hambone Stewart.

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  15. I agree on Mrs. Magers with the first commenter.

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  16. Was Hambone's name Lark?? Maybe Lark Stewart?

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  17. I always considered Hambone Stewart to be one of Baldwyn's better citizens. He always did a good job, he was never ugly to anyone, he never talked about people, and he never complained about anything. As Hambone that was in the Memphis paper always said; "Nuf Said"!

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  18. "NUFF SED" I believe it was ! I agree.....great guy and fun to talk to.

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  19. Does anyone remember who R.B. Marshall was?

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  20. This is a personal confession of sorts and I may be wrong in names and details, but I think the family name for Hambone was Dalrymple. I know because his wife knew me fairly well,I learned. We were playing pranks one day and I called Chaney May D. in a "disguised" voice stating that the hearse was on its way to pick up the body at her house but needed directions. I rambled on a little in my anonymous voice 'til she interrupted me. She called me by name and told me if I ever did anything like this again she was going to tell my daddy. What a wonderful lady she was!!!

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  21. I think Hambone's first name was Stacy.

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  22. Social Security has his name as Stacie Dalrumple...probably a misspelling.

    Born 6 Mar 1916 and died in May 1982

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  23. Milton,
    Stacie Dalrumple was a big man that drove a pickup. He wore glases and was always sweating. He raised hogs and picked up the garbage every day at Scram Gentry's resturant to feed his hogs.
    Hambone more than likely did not have a social security card; he was self employed. Back then the government wasn't as strict about that like they are now. Hambone was supposed to have a daughter named Gwendolyn Stewart and I heard that she was attending UCLA.

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  24. Thanks for setting us straight on Stacie as opposed to Hambone. I can only vaguely remember Hambone, as Red Purvis cut my hair during most of my growing up years.

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  25. I wrote to Billy Bob Lampkin to help in the Hambone question. His dad was the owner of the barbershop. Here is his answer:

    Carl,
    Ham's name was Frank Stewart. He was a hard worker,though he
    appeared slow. He owned his home and three rental houses,
    and one of the neatest Model A pickups. He was preceded by
    Jack Stewart. I don't know the relationship. Jack became a
    steward on GM&O passenger trains about the time WWII
    started. Ham took over.

    I have a picture of the barber shop from early '40s. I'll try
    to send it for the blog. It shows Cecil Lytal working on Jim Barnett,
    Audrey Green and Daddy working on a couple of Glover fellows, and
    Hambone holding up the back wall.
    _____________________

    Thanks, Billy Bob. I have that photo already and it is posted on the blog. To find it, search for Lampkin's Barber Shop.

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  26. Wonder what became of the Mink girls and their red haired neighbor, Betty Sue Hill? They were the first girls on Guy's bus in the mornings. They looked and smelled good!

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  27. I believe that Stacy Dalrumple was Scram Gentry's cook in his cafe..He always wore a white apron. As someone said he was a big guy and Hambone was a slim fellow...OK now what was the name of the man that did go around picking up trash drove a blue Ford pickup and his son worked at the newspaper. He lived on the west side of town..
    Wallis

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  28. Betty Sue Hill was Curtis Wilemon's sister in law. I last saw her at Arthur Wilemon's funeral in the 60's or whenever it was. At Booneville.

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  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  30. In the top photo of the cheerleaders,
    I recognize, from l to r, Brenda Waters, Marion Grissom. and, on the extreme right, Monte Caldwell. Can anyone identify the other four beauties?

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  31. The other man that picked up trash that someone was trying to get the name of might have been Johnny Agnew. I know that Johnny Agnew used to clean up main street around 4 a.m. in the morning.

    R.B. Marshall was the janitor at the elementary school in the early 1950's.

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  32. Phil here is Carl's list from another recent thread:

    Carl Houston said...
    The cheerleaders are: L-R Brenda Waters, Marian Grissom, Edith Ann Gordon, Faye Coggins, Linda Johnson, Sue Cleveland and Monte Caldwell.

    December 30, 2009 12:22 PM

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  33. It took awhile for cobwebs to clear out but I was thinking of Clemon Price..The older blacks respected him and ask him who to vote for,,the others were Roy Copeland who worked at M Gordons....Mr Watts who was in the school system All three of these men were fine people and respected by both white and black people..
    Wallis

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  34. It was Clemon Price that worked at the newspaper. Don't remember him cleaning streets but could have. Roy did clean the streets. Clemon's wife was the baby sitter for Ed Johnson who owned the Weekly news at the time. He continued to work there after the Johnson's left. The Johnsons's lived next door to us in one of Dr RB's duplexes across the highway from My grandmothers house where my mother lives now. They were both wonderful people. She watched out for the 3 of us, Win and Dave Johnson and myself, and ruled that part of the neighborhood with an iron fist. Their son worked for The newspaper until he died.

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