Bus Driver

In elementary school, piling onto the big yellow schoolbus one day, I was hit with a brilliant idea.  As soon as I got home, I told it to Mom: Dad should become a schoolbus driver so he can work the same hours that we're in school!  That way he can be home when we are home.

Mom told me that schoolbus drivers didn't make the same amount of money as lawyers and that you couldn't switch your job to bus driver.  I was disappointed at how quickly she shot down my idea, dismissed it out of hand.  I didn't really get the different amount of money part - a job was a job, right?  What's the difference if you wanted to be a bus driver instead of an attorney?  

Sometime within the last ten years, you briefly expressed regret to me that you hadn't been more involved when we were kids.

But, you were around, Dad, and you were involved.  Not to the extent that Mom was, but you were definitely there.  You came home from work every single day at 6pm, like clockwork.  You'd walk in the back door and head into the kitchen, where you would drop your briefcase and sort through the day's mail, which would be sitting on the counter.  You always opened the mail immediately upon getting home.  I've never been able to do this.  

After you'd sorted the mail, you would go upstairs to change out of your suit and into more comfortable clothes.  When you came down, we'd have dinner together as a family.

"When are we having dinner?" I can remember asking a million times, and the answer was always "When Dad gets home."  What time will that be?  6p.  It was always 6p.  Very, very occasionally you came home later if you had a meeting or something.  

I've never had a schedule coming even mildly close to this consistent since I left home for college at 17.  It was such an anchor when I was a kid and a teenager.  No matter what happened, there you were at 6pm and there we would all sit and eat together.  You were there, Dad, and you were involved.  How could you so consistently be the voice in my head if you hadn't been?

You were a great Dad, and I learned so much from you.

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