The Spring of 1983

Do you remember the spring of 1983? I sure do. Let me tell you about it.

In the spring of 1983 we were fairly new residents of Lafayette, GA having recently moved from Blue Bird Quebec where the average winter snowfall was eleven feet to a delightful small town in the north Georgia mountains just south of Chattanooga, TN. 

My assignment in Quebec was to design a small van-based bus to add to the Blue Bird  product line. It turned out to be the most fun assignment I had in the 30 years I spent with Blue Bird.

My assignment at Lafayette, as plant manager, was to oversee the construction of a new plant and hire staff and employees to build busses. It was another challenging and incredibly rewarding assignment. As I reflect on those days to write this column, one of my favorite pictures comes to mind: My 2-1/2 year old son, David, walking in the trenches being dug for the footings of the new building. A little tyke of a boy having a ball exploring in the trenches; now he’s a 44 year old father of 3 and an incredible business leader himself. Do you ever marvel, as I do, of how your babies have grown up so quickly and become men and women?!!!

So what was so special about the Spring of 1983 that I want to share it with you? It was about a phone call I got early one morning first thing as I got to the office at the new plant. It was from an irate (which is being kind!) neighbor to the plant who was the proud owner of a new Corvette and he was livid after going out the door and seeing school bus yellow paint overspray all over his prized Corvette. I sat there patiently and quietly listening to his expletive-laced diatribe over his worst nightmare and his intentions to sue, etc., etc., and best I could, I sympathized with him because I could certainly relate to how I would feel if I woke up to see school bus yellow overspray on my new Corvette.

I’m going to take a short aside here to tell you how school busses came to be painted yellow. In April 1939, Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York, organized a conference that established 44 uniform national design, construction, and safety standards for school buses in America, including the exterior body color. The yellow-orange color was selected because black lettering on it was most legible in semi-darkness, and because it was conspicuous at a distance and unusual enough to become associated with school buses and groups of children en route. 

Cyr became known as the “Father of the Yellow School Bus.” 

Transportation officials from each of the 48 states, representatives from bus chassis and body manufacturers, and paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paints participated in the conference, which was funded by a $5,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The yellow-orange color, in three slight variants to allow for different paint formulations, was adopted by the National Bureau of Standards.  

Now, back to the office and the irate Corvette owner, who finally ran out of expletives, for me to tell him that we had not yet painted the first yellow school bus in the new plant, and to ask him if he had perhaps parked under a pine tree last night…….to which he grudgingly said, “I’ll check”, and quickly hung up! That was the last thing I heard from our Corvette-owning neighbor!

I was particularly thankful that morning for two things:

1. That I noticed pine pollen on my car as I was getting ready to go to work, and,

2. That I remembered the essence of Proverbs 15:1 from way back that reminded me ” A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Thanks for reading All About Seniors… see you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA