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This story spans sixteen
years of my life, during this time of course
I met many people. Most were nice to me,
a few for whatever reason felt they could
not be and to this latter minority I can
at last say what I was not allowed to back
then: Who gives a xxxx? In any event they
were all interesting in one way or another
but some I remember more fondly than others.
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There was of course Jack
'Bunny' Austin at Winchester, one of the
first conductors to take this eighteen-year-old
trainee under his wing. At almost seventy
years of age he still had a smile and a
cheery word for everyone.
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At the other end of my
career, although not quite the last driver
I worked with but certainly one of the easiest,
Dave Logan on Southampton City Transport.
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But if I had to choose
one person who summed up the experience
of working 'on the buses' in the 60s and
70s it would have to be Freddie Wheeler.
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A long serving driver
on Hants & Dorset Woolston depot he
came over to Southampton when Woolston was
closed. He showed me that work should be
fun and you don't have to be young to be
a rebel. And his wife too who, finding a
double decker bus parked outside her house
in the middle of the afternoon and Freddie
and me taking an unauthorised break, made
us a cup of tea as if it was the most natural
thing in the world.
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| Freddie, wherever
you are now, remember this: I know you read the
notice telling everyone to avoid Titchfield. But
of course you wanted to see the carnival .... |
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| Of course there
were drivers who threw the conductor around the
bus, taking corners too fast or braking sharply.
There were those who couldn't pull up properly at
a bus stop, leaving the conductor to take the abuse
from the passengers. I spent a long period with
one driver who never left the cab and so didn't
care if I missed my breaks. But most of the time
drivers and conductors worked well together. |
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