Back in 1970, a friend of Elaine Kreiser was encouraging her to go to work driving a school bus. "She kept bugging me," recalled Kreiser. "She was a driver, and she kept saying, 'You gotta go drive bus.' I said I would try."

In 2020, during COVID-19 restrictions, Kreiser hit the 50-year mark for driving a school bus, transporting elementary, middle, and high school students for the Pequea Valley School District through Brightbill Transportation, located in New Holland.

Now, Kreiser is saying goodbye to bus number 5 - the bus she has driven the majority of her years behind the wheel. "When I started, I think I had number 35 for a few years, but then I switched to 5 and I've been with 5 ever since," said Kreiser, who has now officially retired from driving the Gap hill route near her home. In the future, she may work as an aide on buses for students with special needs or drive a van if Brightbill fleet manager Dana Riehl needs her to fulfill that duty.

Before Kreiser was trained to drive a school bus - she said she pretty much "took to it" - she was familiar with the many benefits the job offers to a mom with a busy family. "It is a good job when you have kids," said Kreiser. "You're off when they're off (during the school year), and you're off all summer."

As a driver, Kreiser began her days at 4:45 a.m., picking up her first passenger at 6:35 a.m. She finished with her morning route by 9 a.m., and then was off until 2 p.m. to do her own errands and chores. At 2 p.m., she headed out to complete the afternoon route, and she was done driving for the day at 4:40 p.m.

Kreiser pointed out that the attitudes and behaviors of the children she drives have not really changed much over the years. "You gotta let the kids know you're the boss, and they have to do what you tell them," she said, noting that most children were well behaved. "If they hadn't been good, I wouldn't have been here this many years," she said.

According to Kreiser, she drove a few students who stood out over the years. "I remember one (little boy) that came up the steps and plopped a kiss on my cheek," she recalled. "I thought, 'Wow, where did that come from?" She also knows of one young man who did not always behave for her, but sent an apology through a fellow bus driver. "He asked if I was still driving, and he said, 'Tell her I am so sorry. I should never have done that," said Kreiser, who noted that one thing that has changed over the years is the support she receives from both the bus system and the school district. "If you write up a child, they take care of it (now)," she said.

When Kreiser started driving, radio communication between a driver and the fleet manager was nonexistent. "We put chains on the bus tires, but I got stuck one night out here on Hershey Church Road, and it took hours until the snowplow came," relayed Kreiser, who noted that after being plowed out she continued her route, finishing after 6 p.m. "Nobody knew where I was," said Kreiser. "They were out hunting me."

According to Riehl, buses are now much more well-equipped. "We have GPS units, radios, and cameras," she said.

Kreiser drove both her children and her grandchildren to and from school as part of her bus driving job. Until recently, most of the buses she drove were full. "I used to have 40 to 50 (students) on each run," she recalled, "The last few years the elementary bus is not as full."