1 week Ago
As an assistant high school golf coach, I sometimes find myself behind the wheel of a school bus or van, driving golfers to an early morning tournament. Each school vehicle is equipped with a CB radio to communicate with other school buses and the transportation department dispatcher. From 6:30 a.
m. until almost 9 the voices coming over the radio never stop as one challenge after another is presented to the drivers on their route. On one particular morning last week, I listened to a driver explain to the dispatcher that a train came to a complete stop at the Landa Street railroad crossing on Walnut.
He had no idea how long he would be delayed with his bus full of kids. (Why does the train come to a stop at the most inopportune times?) Any driver in New Braunfels has faced the same problem, but there is one major difference. Most of us aren’t responsible for getting 40 elementary-age kids to school on time.
Kids that sometimes need to go to the bathroom at that exact moment, or puke, or start hollering at each other, or become excited because a deer just ran into the bus. For a school bus driver, this is called Wednesday. From broken-down buses to road construction, absent drivers, and kids being late to their bus stop, a bus driver can have an incredibly hectic morning.
And yet, I’ve heard the dispatcher come over the radio asking for help because of any number of issues that arise every morning, and a driver always responds with, “I can do it.” “I can drive someone else’s route, or pick up little Johnny and deliver him to his house, or drive the high school band to their contest.” I’ve never heard a request go unanswered.
Listening to all the chaos has led to an appreciation of the bus drivers. All five of our kids have been bus riders at one point or another. I assumed that the kids would get to school and get home safely every day, without fully comprehending the effort and logistical nightmares that the transportation department faces daily.
It also got me thinking about all the other jobs that I take for granted by the unnamed and unseen people who make my life easy. People that I never think about unless there is a problem. People that make the world go ’round, but will never make much money, or garner any fame or recognition.
Society’s indispensable people. Like the sanitation worker who picks up our trash once a week. Where would we be without him? Can you imagine being responsible for the disposal of your weekly trash? Load it up in the back of the car and drive it out to the city dump every week? Or the postal worker or delivery driver who brings us our wants, needs, and every desire right to our front door (evidently, the Amazon driver has a close relationship with my wife as he visits every day).
What would we do without the janitor who keeps our schools, public buildings, and places of business clean? We seldom see him, for he often does his work after hours outside of the view of the public, but he is essential to our well-being. We most assuredly recognize when the janitor has failed at his job or missed work and we complain, but how often do we recognize a good job and offer our appreciation for his work? Instead, we expect the job to be done without caring who is doing it — without recognizing the value of a clean building, or a delivered package, or a trash-less garage. For the most part, society does a good job of recognizing the important role public servants like policemen, firemen, medical professionals, teachers, and the military play in the community and how each benefits the common good.
And these jobs, and so many others are essential to a functioning society. But are any of these jobs more important than the jobs performed by the unnamed and unseen? How can society acknowledge the value of hidden work? Work that is too often overlooked. I admit that I don’t have a very good answer.
Too often I take such jobs for granted. I don’t show enough appreciation for the hard work done on my behalf. So, I’d like to thank all of the bus drivers who have ever taken my kid to and from school.
I’d like to offer my gratitude to all of the sanitation workers and janitors who make my little piece of the world clean. To the mailmen and delivery drivers, to the H-E-B checkers with a smile on their faces, and the road crew with dust on their clothes, to the school aids, and church volunteers, and everyone else who contributes in innumerable ways to my world, I say thanks..
