As told by a Kareem’s Quest subscriber on YouTube @danthony9306
Believe me those country buses were the gateway to everything. I didn’t take Busta Bus, as Busta Bus rolled down Clonmel Hill around 1972/3 injuring many high school students. Then Busta Bus went bankrupt after that, as a massive claim filed by the affected riders sent it out of service.
My buses were Sunbeam, Northern queen, Mailbus, Victor bus, and Honey Bee.
Sunbeam started my day as an 11-year-old St-Mary-High-School boy. I woke up at 6 am in the morning, took a bath in a wash pan of cold water, and, once dressed, would be on the streetside waiting for the bus. Next step, you had to learn to hop on the bus, especially if you were the only boy at that stop.
If you miss the country bus at 6 am in the morning, then you are in big trouble! First, you are going to get stuck in a minivan, with your back bent over, when you don’t get a seat! St Mary High School morning shift started at 7: 30 am. If you are late, the schoolgate would be closed and you have to sneak in, under the fence or a side fence, to try to get to first devotion, so the prefect dont catch you to report you for detention. A detention was usually served after your school finished at around 2:30 pm.
Back on the Bus
At least in the country bus, if you got no seat you could stand upright and hold on to a seat or overhead rail. When the bus swayed from side to side, or took a deep corner and you looked over the gullies, your heart went boop boop! And don’t forget when those country buses used to race each other around the junction and even on the way from Annatto Bay to Highgate.
The Northern Queen bus was my yellow school bus! Truly miss that bus!
Enjoying the ride
When we got off the Sunbeam Bus in Annotto Bay we would then take the Northern Queen to Highgate and that was quite a steep, exciting, yet nightmarish journey. There was the initial hilly climb from Agua Waltervale to Lewistore, then the equally terrifying climb up Clonmel hill. This stretch used to give us palpitations! So many mornings the bus would roll back when it took the gear to climb that hill. But the most irritating moment was when someone on Clonmel hill stopped the bus to get on. Many times we used to cuss out loud!.
The final heart wrenching moment was the climb up Marymount hill. Once we got over those obstacles it was smooth sailing all the way down to Highgate and to St Mary High.
But imagine the races we used to experience going to Kingston, Sunbeam bus vs Mail bus vs Victor Bus. The drivers used to wait for each other and the race would start. Omg, it was so dangerous but exciting. And when our Sunbeam overtook Mailbus round the Junction, we used to shout like we just won a race. And when the Sunbeam bus would start the descent down Red Gal Ring, every breath ah hold in. Lol.
Believe me it didn’t matter if the buses were going uphill or downhill, round a corner or beside a precipice. The heavier the load on top of the bus carriage, the more expedient it was for the driver to ensure his bus reached Coronation market in Kingston first.
Watch this video on St. Mary buses
Looking back when you took the country bus,it felt like taking a plane; it was our plane to a different world. Country was nice but Kingston with street lights and stop lights was foreign and new. A world beyond my lowly circumstances!! It was strange, so different, yet so exciting. It was different from what we were accustomed to such as: stoning mangoes off a laden tree, eating guava by a riverbank and doing ‘kinpuppalicks’ in a river.
Town was a different concrete place with cars like dirt, and beautiful JOS buses plying exotic routes.The country bus took us to a world of possibilities and then back home.
A world where you saw lights on the street that lit the night sky. Now you could see beyond peenie wallie, tinning lamp and shade lamp; moonlight and starry nights. A world of other lights.
The country bus took us to the supermarket in the town.. The piece of Khaki to make the school pants or dress,you got it in town. Thanks to the country bus.
We could pick up items off a supermarket shelf with our own two hands. No need to yell to the local shopkeeper, ‘a pound of flour, half pound a cornmeal, 1 lb a rice, quarter pound ah saltfish sah!’ Now you could do it all by yourself, no hassle. All the while dressed up in your best clothes, shoes and haircut. It was quite an experience. Thanks to the country bus!
And then imagine the other culinary delights, such as patties and KFC that you would encounter in the town. All due to the country bus!
The country bus took us from a world of dreams to possibilities beyond where we grew up. Now I know that I would not be limited by my circumstances. I could aspire to strive to visit foreign lands, to be something in life. The bus connected us to new horizons and allowed us to think of bigger dreams. I will cherish these memories all my days. I’m sure many here will concur.
Out of our small village, with one or two cars, the tiny post office with the one telegram line, the tiny clinic with the village nurse, the few houses with a Gleaner subscription where the postman would drive in early and throw the paper by the gate. A small village library with a Gleaner where you would get to read the cartoons such as Pink Panther, Dilbert and others.
But it was the country bus that broadened our world. It exposed us to a world bigger than what we were used to. It gave us a chance to explore, to see bigger and better things. To see the sweet and sour, good and bad. Thanks to the country bus!
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The crash the person spoke of in Clonmel was actually in 1974 …can’t remember the month but it was probably around May or June.I was on the spot….The champion runner from St Mary High died…a teacher .r Hanchard from same school was injuried.
Thanks for sharing this insight