Retiring E-S bus driver follows in husband’s footsteps

by Beth Kraft

Driving school bus is in the Hanson family’s blood. 

Both Howard and Ramona Hanson of Strum began driving bus routes for the Eleva-Strum School District beginning in the 1970s. Neither of them really intended to become career bus drivers, but it was a profession that the couple and their son, Wayne, who also drives bus for E-S, came to love.

Howard retired this past May after 41 years of E-S bus routes. Zipping up her favorite red jacket and boarding her bus for the last time recently, Ramona followed suit on Dec. 5 having logged 40 1/2 years as an E-S bus driver.

“I’m glad I did it,” said Ramona Hanson of her years spent at the wheel. “It was a lot of early mornings and hectic times, but a lot of good came out of it, too.

“These forty years, things have changed an awful lot,” she added.

One thing that didn’t change over that span was Hanson’s love for children. It was those daily interactions with local kids—asking them about their day, listening as they practiced their Christmas program songs, and even helping hunt for lost teeth to take home for the Tooth Fairy—that led her to continue on as a bus driver for so many years.

“Family is very important to me and kids as a whole,” said Hanson, who has six children, 19 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren herself.

She started out as a substitute bus driver in 1974 and was later hired on as a regular route driver. Hanson and her bus then covered an area north of Strum for 14 years before switching to an Eleva-area route for the past 26 years.

Nicknamed “Grandma Ramona” by Eleva secretary Debbie Wright to help ease the nervousness of those first-time riders, Hanson says she tried to befriend her young passengers and to have a positive impact on their lives.

“It made me feel like I’m here for more than just a paycheck,” she said of the many happy chats she had with E-S students over the years.

Some of the district’s youths don’t have it so easy at home. Hanson says she often picked up on those children’s struggles and tried to help brighten their day by striking up conversations with them “just to let them know that somebody cared.”

Over the years, several students have asked if they were allowed to call her grandma. Hanson had just one accompanying rule.

“I’d say, ‘if you want to call me grandma then you’re going to have to listen to me,’” she remembered.

Most kids were receptive to Hanson’s firm stipulations that helped her keep order on her watch, but not all of the troubled youths left her bus on the right path.

She recently learned that a boy who pointed a squirt gun at her on the bus years ago is now incarcerated.

However, Hanson has stayed in touch with many of her former bus-riders over the years and loves running into others she hasn’t seen in years.

“Some of them that you had years ago will say, ‘there’s my old bus driver!’” she said with a smile.

Several students have even given Hanson special gifts that she displays proudly, mostly because of the memories they hold. A gold-colored bus statue given to her by “Uncle Ralph” Johnson and a bus-themed Beanie Baby bear are her “treasures,” she said.

“This really meant a lot to me when he gave this to me,” said Hanson of the small statue.

Another memorable gift was a key chain that reads, “God protect this bus.” A student gave it to her at Christmas about 20 years ago. She later had it made into a necklace.

Hanson also enjoyed traversing her daily routes through the countryside—as long as it wasn’t snowing.

Those cold, snowy Wisconsin mornings of digging out and clearing off two school buses prior to their a.m. routes while Howard completed the mechanical checks is something she won’t miss. Yet driving bus was part of the special bond shared by the duo, who have been married for nearly 59 years.

“We always were a team with family and busing and parenting and everything,” Hanson said.

She pointed out that it’s possible that neither she nor Howard would have become bus drivers at E-S if it wasn’t for Joe Olson, the former E-S bus supervisor, mechanic, and driver who gave Howard his first job. Olson later hired Ramona to cover his route and even helped out on the Hansons’ farm over the years.

“He was just a special, special person,” Hanson said of Olson.

While giving up her daily interactions with local students will be difficult, Hanson said she wanted to retire before any safety incidents on the road made a snap decision for her.

She plans to stay busy by spending time with family and friends and focusing on her gardening.

Both she and Howard continue to express interest in hosting a get-together at their farm to reunite their former bus riders and reconnect with people they haven’t seen in years, a thought they began mulling over earlier this year when Howard retired.

“God has been so good to us with good health thus far and I’m hoping he will bless us with a few more years so we can enjoy our retirement,” Hanson said.