8:15) chris abraham 03-SEP-97 12:55

TheBUS. The city bus in Honolulu. From 6-11, I lived across the street from my Elementary School, Aliamanu Elementary. At 12, we moved downtown, miles away. I was a crossing guard for JPO (Junior Police Officers) in my school. We never told the school district we had moved. I had to be ready as a guard at 6:30am, in an orange tunic and an aluminum pole with a red "STOP" at the end. I took the public bus 5 miles every morning to school during 6th grade. Bleary-eyed, out the door, an hour early. Pre-dawn. Dawn. My backpack and the quarter for school lunch. The paper bus pass. Walking from the apartment, down the slope of Punchbowl. Even Honolulu is chilly early. Rubber slippers, backpack. Waiting there at the bus stop before the eternal flame (for the dead men of the war).

Hawaii is blessed with the most wonderful bus system. The fares are cheap and the people are all friendly and bright and the bus driver always takes care of the kids. There are always very young kids taking the bus to better schools away from their area, supplying addresses from their auntie or cousin as their own -- anybody who lives in that school district.

I was lucky that my bus drove straight to Salt Lake, where the school is. And then Walked down the small slope and to the little orange room where we picked up the reflective tape and vests, silver whistles and batons for stopping traffic for the kids coming to school hours after we did.

No, I never took a yellow bus, except when going on field trips to the Aquarium, to a theme park, to the youth symphony. Funny, I took TheBUS everywhere, even earlier than 11, but commuting on the bus at 12 seemed very menacing and awfully mature. I loved it and it excited me to no end.