Despite there being bus driver shortages, one local woman has been driving for nearly 40 years.
“I’ve been driving since 1989, about 37 years,” Patricia Hylton, county school bus driver, said. “I started at Blairs Middle and Southside Elementary; I really enjoyed driving for those two schools, I loved the kids and other drivers, but I really enjoyed it because Mr. Wales and Mr. Brian worked there as the principals, and I knew they were good men.”
Ms. Hylton has worked for a couple different schools over the years, including Dan River and Tunstall.
“I started driving a bus because at the time I was getting a divorce, and the only form of income I had was from the money I’d make helping his family on the tobacco farm,” Hylton said. “I had three girls, so I worked at Walmart for a bit to make some extra money while I drove for Blairs and Southside.”
“After I started driving for Twin Springs Elementary a couple years later, I quit Walmart and I’ve been driving a bus ever since,” Hylton said. “I intend to be at Twin Springs at least ten more years; I’m 67 and I’ll be 77, knocking on 80.”
When Ms. Hylton retires she says she will miss the kids the most, and how sweet and polite they are.
“I drive Bus 206, and that number hasn’t changed in many years,” Hylton. “I like working at Twin Springs; I’ve always had a pretty good group of kids, and they grow so much over the years that by the time they leave my bus for good to go to middle school, they look so much more grown. All my grandkids rode my bus, and I drive a lot of my friends grand-kids. I really have always felt connected to my community through bus driving; I feel I am truly serving the people around me.”
