When I was in elementary school a teacher asked the class this question, "What Color Is A School Bus?" I rarely raised my hand to answer a question after this day not just in her class but for the rest of my life. From this point forward I became a quiet child that rarely interacted with the class or teachers. Why you might be wondering. Let me explain exactly what happened that day and why I often ask people the same question, "What Color Is A School Bus?"

Be Thinking About Your Answer To The Question, "What Color Is A School Bus?", While You Read This Post.

Let's first begin with a small back story. The kid in this story is me. I never got into any trouble as a kid ever. I was scared to death of my mother and father who were strict by all comparisons to stories from other kids on strictness. If you were to compare our parents to other kids parents based on their own stories about discipline to mine on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most strict most kids would have about a 5. My parents would fall into the 9 to 10 range. For the Most Part I Made A's And B's but in Elementary Skill they use S and U. S was satisfactory and U was un-satisfactory. They Possibly Did This To Sub-Consciously Train Kids To Think About Factory Work As A Job.

While waiting for the school bus one day I was shocked to see a brand new bright orange bus pull up. So excited was I that I texted all of my friends... Joking texting wasn't invented yet. Now I'm telling my age for sure. This new bus was different from our old yellow bus. This bus didn't smell like urine or make you nearly pass out from the exhaust fumes on the ride to school or home.

This school bus had something else that I really admired,but later would loath, it had heater vents. When you did not have a winter coat having multiple heater vents on the bus was nice. The only downside was that many kids didn't have winter coats either and so fighting over who got to sit in a seat with a heater became the normal commute. (Yes this is in the United States The Richest Nation On Earth.) I really felt sorry for other countries until I got older and realized that many of them had it a lot better than we did growing up.

We lived in a small rural town in Tennessee. Since many were kind of poor no one really noticed at the time how poor we really were. The only new school bus for the whole district that year was for our bus driver. There was a seniority system and he had not received a new school bus ever because he was black. They finally decided that since he was the oldest driver and he was going to be retiring soon that he would get the new bus. I think they were trying to avoid a lawsuit. No matter what the real reason was I was glad we had a brand new Orange bus.

When I arrived home from school my sisters and I talked to Mom about the new School bus and the color. We all were amazed that we had an Orange school bus. We even asked Mom if we could have an orange school bus because all of the others that took you to public school were yellow. She assured us it was just as safe and maybe safer. She said one day kids will even have seat belts on the bus. We all cringed at the thought of having to wear a seat belt on the bus.

Mom worked for the department of transportation until she got sick. She was a wonderful mother. Dad was wonderful too just both were strict with rules to life and discipline. They both worked hard and tried to provide as best they could for their three kids and others in the community as well. One thing I can say is that my parents were well loved by many for opening their home up to the other poor kids for food and warmth.

They had a rule that if you spent the night and ate their food you had to go to church on Sundays with us. We often had our own bus running kids around. It wasn't a bus but rather a brown station wagon, a white station wagon and a few SUV's in later years. We jokingly called the vehicles a bus because of all of the kids that were picked up and dropped off at church. Often the church was full because of Mom and Dad and their rounding up the community to worship! They were often late too as they made multiple trips to and from some Sundays.

There was another church in town that actually owned a bus. It was called The Sunday School Bus. Can you guess what color it was? Probably not so let me tell you. When I first seen the bus it was White. Then later they either bought another one or had it painted blue. Their Sunday school bus was neat.

Several weeks after getting the new bus for some reason our school teacher asked the class a life changing question. She asked the class to raise there hand if anyone knew what color a school bus was. Of course almost everyone raised their hand. One after another answered the question with "Yellow!" Then it was my turn, I boldly stated, "Orange!". Nearly the whole class laughed and the teacher even chuckled a little bit. She said, "Orange, don't you mean yellow." I replied back, "Not All School Buses Are Yellow. Some Are Orange And White And Blue."

This was the biggest mistake in my entire life. The teacher had a total melt down right there in the classroom. People wearing white clothes should have been summoned to come take her to the special place people go when they are not right in the mind. There was zero sarcasm or tone in my voice. I can still see all of my classmate that were looking and laughing at "School Buses Being Orange", suddenly turn around and face the front of the class and not a word was said. You could have heard a pin drop if it were not for the teacher flipping the F$%K out! She honestly believed that school buses were yellow and could be no other color.

For several minutes she yelled and screamed that school buses were yellow. That I clearly had color sight issues and was possibly color blind. School buses are, "Yellow!" I just shook my head no... She got right in my face and calmly like a mad person said, "Repeat after me, School Buses Are Yellow." I refused. Even as a child I wasn't a mindless fruitcake. My refusal to conform is what I think got me the paddling and then sent to the principle's office for not following instructions. If you live in the United States and went to public schools you probably have similar stories.

After this incident I rarely raised my hand in class again to ask or to answer a question. Even until this day I will often ask people whom I suspect of being a little deranged, "What Color Is A School Bus?" If they quickly answer yellow I'll often ask them if they have ever seen any other color school bus. If they say no then I know that they assume all school buses are yellow because that is all that they have ever seen not because they are freaking crazy! If they answer any other color than yellow, I'm completely elated because generally when I ask them have they seen any other color school bus they will list multiple colors that a school bus could be.

What Color Is A School Bus?

Any color that someone wishes to paint it though in most countries there are government rules that require certain colors for safety if the school bus will be used for transporting kids. Our neighbors lived in a white school bus for many years that they converted into Recreational Type Vehicle. It was pretty cool and now looking back kinda of sad. Perhaps the first Tiny House revolution was to convert old school buses!

My life is pretty good so don't feel sorry for me in any way. If you are reading this article around the Holidays and are in a giving mood, please donate to someone local in your community before sending your funds to overseas projects where most of the funds are stolen by the governments. When you give local to someone local you can impact change in your own home town. When you give to someone love directly 100% of your donation is distributed to the one in need not 90% to the charity and 10% to 100 people in need. Your local charitable donation is probably not tax deductible but that shouldn't be your motivation when giving! Have a great week!

If you are down and out this time of year, STOP! Watch This Video And Try Not To Laugh, Try Not To Cry! Do realize you can change tomorrow by changing something today!