For more than five decades each, Upshure Coard Jr. and John Dale Smack Jr. drove school buses in the Berlin area.
James Purnell Jr., a former county commissioner, has driven for four decades and Glendola Bowen Whaley has driven since 1997.
Combined, those three men and one woman steered Worcester County school children back and forth to school for more than a century and a half. All this time, none have ever been in an accident on the job, and none have ever seen a child in his or her care get seriously hurt.
For many years, the bus driver demographic was exclusively made up of black men, starting with Charlie Hudson in the 1940s. Charles Henry, Charlie Forman and Upshure Coard Sr. were also among the first wave of drivers. Like postmen, they often drove through rain, sleet and snow, down the rough rural back roads of Worcester County, on the way to school each day.
Coard, 83, remembers the days when buses drove through snowstorms with chains wrapped around the tires. Once, the snow was so bad that a farmer had to come and pull him out of a drift. That was, of course, only after he had safely taken the last child home.
He started driving in 1957, taking the business over from his father. His first route was near 5 Mile Branch Road, in an area surrounded by farmland, picking up African-American children.
“All there was, was farms and tomato factories and fields of corn,” he said.
Between shifts he did odd jobs, including working at a bowling alley, where he reset the pins by hand between frames. He also worked at the Stowaway Hotel in Ocean City for 25 years.
When schools started to integrate in the 1960s, he said there were few issues that carried over onto his school bus.
“People got along better then than they do now,” he said. “I don’t know what happened, but something set things back. I think the economy’s got a lot to do with race relations, because now people fight for jobs.”
Smack, 82, signed a contract in 1961 and began driving the following year in Whaleyville. When he started, many of the streets were unpaved, and the houses on his route were old and often in need of repair, he said.
“The population was less and the school system has changed. The routes have changed. The school has changed. To me, the children haven’t changed that much,” Smack said.
Like Coard, Smack often had other jobs between driving. He worked as a painter, and, for 28 years, worked at Layton’s in Ocean City.
During his 52 years on the job, Smack said he often saw generations within the same family climbing into the seats behind him.
“I’m lucky to have known a lot of these parents through the years, as I have, because they would say, ‘when you start riding his bus, you will know what to do,’” he said. “If you have a good relationship with the parents, you will not have many problems.”
For more than five decades, he did not miss a single day of work.
“The years that I drove the bus, I did not have a day of sickness,” Smack said. “That sticks with me every day. God is good.”
Purnell, 78, and Whaley, 69, both still operate buses in Worcester County.
“Most of my life I spent behind a steering wheel,” Purnell said.
In 1974, he took a route over for his cousin, near Germantown. Today, he drives Bus 13 to Stephen Decatur High School.
Like Upshure, he remembers a more rural Worcester County.
“Back then you didn’t have the heavy populated areas that you have now,” he said. “The population was probably about half of this size. [The county] is not nearly as rural now as people perceive it to be.”
During the 1970s, Purnell said a standard chauffer’s license was all it took to drive a bus. Today, drivers have to pass a class, a rigorous Department of Transportation inspection, and a physical.
He said parents were also more supportive of drivers when he started. He blames that shift in support on a changing culture.
“Back then, we didn’t have babies raising babies. That’s the problem now,” he said. “You got a child in school and you look at the mother who is probably about 19, 20. Plus, she’s out there working, trying to make a living, because you’ve got a lot of single mothers. A lot of kids out there now raise themselves.
“Looking back, you could go tell a parent your kid did such and such – you’d better not go do that now,” he said.
Whaley is the baby of group, both in age and in tenure. She started driving a bus in 1997, taking children from the Route 707 area to Ocean City Elementary School.
Before driving, she worked at Berlin Middle School, as “support personnel.” Her two sisters, Ruby Baker and Queen Satchel, and her brother, Theophilus Bowen Jr., were also bus drivers.
Now, she drives Bus 8 to Showell Elementary School. It’s an experience that has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.
“My kids are not that bad, plus I have good parents,” she said. “I don’t really have to write up referrals. I take care of the situation myself. When I get finished and back my bus up in the yard, I have a satisfied mind.”
Bus drivers in the Worcester County make $20.86 and hour, plus an additional $1.479 per mile. Maintenance and upkeep can claim 30-40 percent of that, and new buses can cost well into six figures.
It took decades of work to get to that point, however, starting with an association of African-American bus drivers that formed in Berlin.
Purnell said he made $775 a month when he started driving. In the 1950s, Coard remembers making $400 a month.
“We thought $400 at that time was good,” he said.
Eventually, the meetings drew drivers not just from Berlin, but also from across the county.
“It brought the black drivers from Pocomoke and Snow Hill, and they all came together,” Purnell said. “That lasted way beyond integration, then all the sudden – out of the blue – came the Worcester County Bus Association.
“We all joined in and were able to keep functioning, and the next thing you know we were all members of the state association,” Purnell continued. “But it was through that first association and working with the county – that’s how we arrived at what we’re getting today. If it had not been for the association, I don’t know where we’d be.”
Those early meetings also led to drivers receiving fair pay for after-hours trips, from sporting events to nearby towns, to week-long field trips across state lines.
“The biggest part of my mileage is done on the highway, going to New York and staying the whole week, going ‘round to Morgantown, West Virginia and staying the whole week. I carried boy’s basketball to Memphis, Tennessee and stayed the whole week,” Purnell said. “Now, I get paid for it. My room is paid. My food and lodging and everything is taken care of. We’ve come a long ways – a very long ways.”
All four say they share more than just the bond of being black bus drivers from the Berlin area. In the broader picture, they are four people who enjoyed their jobs and genuinely loved the children they served.
“There’s an old saying that I found out years ago is true: in order for a bus driver to be successful and enjoy your job, you’ve got to love the kids,” Purnell said. “If you don’t love kids, you don’t need to get behind that steering wheel.”
Purnell said he plans to continue driving for at least the next two years. After that, he’ll have a decision to make. His current bus will need to be replaced, based on state regulations, and a similar model would cost him $157,000.
“I don’t think I’m going to do that,” he said. “That may partly answer that question.”
Asked how long she hopes to continue driving, Whaley said, “I’m not tired yet.”
“You let me know when you are, and I’ll come back,” Smack said with a laugh.
After nearly 20 years on the road, Whaley said she is more than a bus driver. She also considers herself a counselor – and a friend – to the children.
“I love my children, and they love me. And I know they do because they tell you,” she said. “I get respect from them – and their parents also – and I enjoy my job.”
“The best thing, to me is, when I still see those kids and they say, ‘I remember you. You drove my bus,’” Coard said. “It makes you feel good that you’ve done something right.”
Berlin native Gregory Purnell, who helped bring all four drivers together for this article, said he still has fond memories of his own bus drivers, who he called “unsung heroes” of the community.
“Your bus driver is almost like a part of your family,” he said. “When I was going to school, I knew every bus and who drove every bus and almost knew every route, because you had an affinity for those bus drivers. They were part of your every day. Five days a week, you were with that bus driver twice a day.
“How many times have they waited for a kid who was running to the bus? How many times have they dropped a kid off at his lane when it was raining or snowing? This is the story of the bus driver – how they cared for those kids just like they were their own.
“That bus driver is a hero in the neighborhood. Everybody had a bus driver,” Purnell said.
James Purnell Jr., a former county commissioner, has driven for four decades and Glendola Bowen Whaley has driven since 1997.
Combined, those three men and one woman steered Worcester County school children back and forth to school for more than a century and a half. All this time, none have ever been in an accident on the job, and none have ever seen a child in his or her care get seriously hurt.
For many years, the bus driver demographic was exclusively made up of black men, starting with Charlie Hudson in the 1940s. Charles Henry, Charlie Forman and Upshure Coard Sr. were also among the first wave of drivers. Like postmen, they often drove through rain, sleet and snow, down the rough rural back roads of Worcester County, on the way to school each day.
Coard, 83, remembers the days when buses drove through snowstorms with chains wrapped around the tires. Once, the snow was so bad that a farmer had to come and pull him out of a drift. That was, of course, only after he had safely taken the last child home.
He started driving in 1957, taking the business over from his father. His first route was near 5 Mile Branch Road, in an area surrounded by farmland, picking up African-American children.
“All there was, was farms and tomato factories and fields of corn,” he said.
Between shifts he did odd jobs, including working at a bowling alley, where he reset the pins by hand between frames. He also worked at the Stowaway Hotel in Ocean City for 25 years.
When schools started to integrate in the 1960s, he said there were few issues that carried over onto his school bus.
“People got along better then than they do now,” he said. “I don’t know what happened, but something set things back. I think the economy’s got a lot to do with race relations, because now people fight for jobs.”
Smack, 82, signed a contract in 1961 and began driving the following year in Whaleyville. When he started, many of the streets were unpaved, and the houses on his route were old and often in need of repair, he said.
“The population was less and the school system has changed. The routes have changed. The school has changed. To me, the children haven’t changed that much,” Smack said.
Like Coard, Smack often had other jobs between driving. He worked as a painter, and, for 28 years, worked at Layton’s in Ocean City.
During his 52 years on the job, Smack said he often saw generations within the same family climbing into the seats behind him.
“I’m lucky to have known a lot of these parents through the years, as I have, because they would say, ‘when you start riding his bus, you will know what to do,’” he said. “If you have a good relationship with the parents, you will not have many problems.”
For more than five decades, he did not miss a single day of work.
“The years that I drove the bus, I did not have a day of sickness,” Smack said. “That sticks with me every day. God is good.”
Purnell, 78, and Whaley, 69, both still operate buses in Worcester County.
“Most of my life I spent behind a steering wheel,” Purnell said.
In 1974, he took a route over for his cousin, near Germantown. Today, he drives Bus 13 to Stephen Decatur High School.
Like Upshure, he remembers a more rural Worcester County.
“Back then you didn’t have the heavy populated areas that you have now,” he said. “The population was probably about half of this size. [The county] is not nearly as rural now as people perceive it to be.”
During the 1970s, Purnell said a standard chauffer’s license was all it took to drive a bus. Today, drivers have to pass a class, a rigorous Department of Transportation inspection, and a physical.
He said parents were also more supportive of drivers when he started. He blames that shift in support on a changing culture.
“Back then, we didn’t have babies raising babies. That’s the problem now,” he said. “You got a child in school and you look at the mother who is probably about 19, 20. Plus, she’s out there working, trying to make a living, because you’ve got a lot of single mothers. A lot of kids out there now raise themselves.
“Looking back, you could go tell a parent your kid did such and such – you’d better not go do that now,” he said.
Whaley is the baby of group, both in age and in tenure. She started driving a bus in 1997, taking children from the Route 707 area to Ocean City Elementary School.
Before driving, she worked at Berlin Middle School, as “support personnel.” Her two sisters, Ruby Baker and Queen Satchel, and her brother, Theophilus Bowen Jr., were also bus drivers.
Now, she drives Bus 8 to Showell Elementary School. It’s an experience that has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.
“My kids are not that bad, plus I have good parents,” she said. “I don’t really have to write up referrals. I take care of the situation myself. When I get finished and back my bus up in the yard, I have a satisfied mind.”
Bus drivers in the Worcester County make $20.86 and hour, plus an additional $1.479 per mile. Maintenance and upkeep can claim 30-40 percent of that, and new buses can cost well into six figures.
It took decades of work to get to that point, however, starting with an association of African-American bus drivers that formed in Berlin.
Purnell said he made $775 a month when he started driving. In the 1950s, Coard remembers making $400 a month.
“We thought $400 at that time was good,” he said.
Eventually, the meetings drew drivers not just from Berlin, but also from across the county.
“It brought the black drivers from Pocomoke and Snow Hill, and they all came together,” Purnell said. “That lasted way beyond integration, then all the sudden – out of the blue – came the Worcester County Bus Association.
“We all joined in and were able to keep functioning, and the next thing you know we were all members of the state association,” Purnell continued. “But it was through that first association and working with the county – that’s how we arrived at what we’re getting today. If it had not been for the association, I don’t know where we’d be.”
Those early meetings also led to drivers receiving fair pay for after-hours trips, from sporting events to nearby towns, to week-long field trips across state lines.
“The biggest part of my mileage is done on the highway, going to New York and staying the whole week, going ‘round to Morgantown, West Virginia and staying the whole week. I carried boy’s basketball to Memphis, Tennessee and stayed the whole week,” Purnell said. “Now, I get paid for it. My room is paid. My food and lodging and everything is taken care of. We’ve come a long ways – a very long ways.”
All four say they share more than just the bond of being black bus drivers from the Berlin area. In the broader picture, they are four people who enjoyed their jobs and genuinely loved the children they served.
“There’s an old saying that I found out years ago is true: in order for a bus driver to be successful and enjoy your job, you’ve got to love the kids,” Purnell said. “If you don’t love kids, you don’t need to get behind that steering wheel.”
Purnell said he plans to continue driving for at least the next two years. After that, he’ll have a decision to make. His current bus will need to be replaced, based on state regulations, and a similar model would cost him $157,000.
“I don’t think I’m going to do that,” he said. “That may partly answer that question.”
Asked how long she hopes to continue driving, Whaley said, “I’m not tired yet.”
“You let me know when you are, and I’ll come back,” Smack said with a laugh.
After nearly 20 years on the road, Whaley said she is more than a bus driver. She also considers herself a counselor – and a friend – to the children.
“I love my children, and they love me. And I know they do because they tell you,” she said. “I get respect from them – and their parents also – and I enjoy my job.”
“The best thing, to me is, when I still see those kids and they say, ‘I remember you. You drove my bus,’” Coard said. “It makes you feel good that you’ve done something right.”
Berlin native Gregory Purnell, who helped bring all four drivers together for this article, said he still has fond memories of his own bus drivers, who he called “unsung heroes” of the community.
“Your bus driver is almost like a part of your family,” he said. “When I was going to school, I knew every bus and who drove every bus and almost knew every route, because you had an affinity for those bus drivers. They were part of your every day. Five days a week, you were with that bus driver twice a day.
“How many times have they waited for a kid who was running to the bus? How many times have they dropped a kid off at his lane when it was raining or snowing? This is the story of the bus driver – how they cared for those kids just like they were their own.
“That bus driver is a hero in the neighborhood. Everybody had a bus driver,” Purnell said.