Nelson celebrates 50 years as bus driver

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

“Wow! I got old. Has it really been 50 years? It doesn’t seem like that long. It seems like it was just yesterday,” Eddie Nelson said, reflecting on the last 50 years of dedicated service as a bus driver at Central School. 

It’s been 50 years of changes, experiences and memories that have shaped him into the city eschewing, small community bound person that he is today. It’s 50 years that also includes working on the family farm, as a fuel delivery driver and as owner of “The Store,” a local convenience store on Bridge Street. 

Over the last 50 years, Eddie hasn’t just lived here—he’s become a part of the fabric of the community. A small part of it, the bus driving, started on a whim when the school was short drivers and a friend asked if he’d lend a hand. 

“Sure, I’ll try it,” Eddie recalled, and so began a decades-long side hustle. It’s a job that has seen many changes over decades, from safety enhancements to increased regulations. 

What once required a simple chauffeur’s license now requires “too many tests,” if you ask Eddie, who is “grandfathered in.” 

“They’ve made it so tough now that people don’t want to do it,” he said.

Another change has been with tire chains, which were more common years ago and in frequent use at Central because one former superintendent never closed school, forcing drivers to drive in “harsh conditions,” according to Eddie. Chains have since become a thing of the past on most buses. 

A more modern difference has to do with the use of radios and cell phones and cameras on the bus. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Eddie got his first radio on the bus, and it proved to be a game changer, especially if a bus broke down. 

Back in the days before technology made everything easier, when a bus broke down, the driver had to walk to the nearest farmhouse or home to use a land line. Nowadays, a simple call to the school from the comfort of the bus and the problem is handled. 

A larger, more significant and sadder detail comes from listening to Eddie describe the changes in the school system and countryside he has witnessed along the routes and through the years. 

“There is no one out here anymore…there used to be 14 routes, now there are five. There’s just not as many kids,” he said. 

Even so, Eddie reminisces fondly about the kids he has transported. The kids are what kept him in the driver’s seat all these years. 

“I’ve watched kids grow up, get married, and now I’m driving their kids,” he said. 

In fact, Eddie believes there are a few examples where he is now driving the third generation of a family. 

He talked about how former students will stop him in the street and say hi,” or spark up a conversation that ignites a memory, a shared story over which to bond. Stories such as the most difficult day on the job, which was a field trip to a basketball tournament in Clinton, where the return trip home was mired by fog, turning a typical two-and-a-half-hour trip into a six-hour white-knuckle marathon. 

“It got so foggy after the game, I couldn’t see over the hood,” Eddie said. 

Then there is the story of taking students to view cadavers in Cedar Rapids, where, according to Eddie, kids actually fainted. 

“I learned with the kids,” said Eddie, who also enjoyed attending sporting events and watching the athletes develop. The field trips allowed Eddie to see things, experience Iowa and spend time with a community’s greatest asset, its children. 

“I wish I would’ve taken a picture of the kids to see how they’ve changed. It’d be interesting to see how they’ve grown,” Eddie said. 

A more recent story involves poultry—more specifically a turkey that flew through the bus windshield and ended up in the second seat. Though terrifying in the moment, it became a source of comedy, leading one mechanic to joke “he picked feathers out of the heater vents for weeks.” Eddie remarked how the incident even led to a nickname: “Blue Bird Turkey Hunter.” 

In terms of what Eddie means to the school, Central Superintendent Nick Trenkamp summed it up best: “Central is blessed to have excellent bus drivers to get our students safely to and from school. Finding drivers is a real issue for Central and all school districts, so having a driver who has been doing this for 50 years is truly an accomplishment. What I love about Mr. Nelson the most is his warm smile and welcoming laughter. Congratulations on 50 years at Central and thank you!” 

When asked what kept him going for 50 years, Eddie likes to joke it’s because “I was too dumb too quit.” But the reality is, he’d miss it. There is a sense of responsibility to the community, a notion that “the community can count on bus drivers.” 

While he may have gotten older and the times have certainly changed, Eddie has no intentions of retiring, stating, “I’m tired, but not retired. I just like keeping up with the community, and I have enjoyed every day.”