CASS LAKE-Before 1950, student transportation to the grades 1-8 Farris School was an informal arrangement.
At one time, children were hauled in the back of a 1938 Chevrolet truck to the country school west of Cass Lake. Earlier still, the mode of travel was by wagon pulled by a team of horses.
But in 1950, a Farris School Board member, Albert Kolkin, decided to move into the 20th Century and hire a school bus. Kolkin was Arvilla Wittner's father, so her husband, Richard, naturally, won the bus contract.
"I owned my own bus, and I drove for Farris School," Richard said. "And I hauled the (Cass Lake) high school from the Farris area. I drove the route twice-105 miles a day. They gave me $300 bucks a month, and I bought the gas and paid the insurance."
Richard doesn't remember exactly what the insurance cost, but said it wasn't much. The gas cost 15 cents a gallon. The bus, a 1944 Ford Superior, carried 48 passengers. "I bought it in the Cities for $1,700 bucks," he said. "I borrowed $1,000 from First National Bank Cass Lake."
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At that time, a commercial license wasn't necessary to drive school bus. Drivers just needed a regular car license, which Arvilla possessed. Without telling anyone, she also practiced solo driving bus. When Richard bought out another bus route and needed a driver. "I admitted to him I could drive a bus," she said.
So, Richard gave his wife a road test. "I said, 'If you say one word, I'm getting out and walking home,'" Arvilla said. "He never said a word."
Richard grins over at his wife of 68 years. "I'd say she was the best driver Cass Lake ever had," he said.
Arvilla, three years younger that Richard's 89 years, went to the Farris School. Richard attended a country school in a different part of the area, so they didn't know each other growing up. One day, when Richard and a friend skipped class at Cass Lake High School, they went to watch a ballgame at the Farris School. There, Richard saw Arvilla for the first time. "I thought, 'I like that girl. Big husky girl. I bet she could carry two milk pails,'" he said.
Before starting the bus business, Richard said he expected to become a farmer.
The couple married in 1948 and have five daughters and two sons, one of whom, Kenny, now owns the bus business and drives for Cass Lake. Other family members who drove school bus for Richard and Arvilla were their son, Ricky, brothers Leo and George, nephew Carl and grandsons Roman Lyons and Tyler Wittner.
Tyler Wittner is now transportation director for Cass Lake School District. "The school is getting into busing," Tyler said. "They have one contractor-my dad."
In contrast to the price of his grandfather's 1944 Ford bus, Tyler said Cass Lake School District recently bought two new buses for about $85,000 each.
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Richard and Arvilla recalled some of the highlights and lowlights of the early days of the business. The pull-out stop sign on the side of the bus was operated by muscle power, she said. He said riders had to help shovel the bus out of snow drifts if it got stuck. The bus was unheated, and his first winter registered temperatures down to 50 below. One of the students had to get out of the bus at railroad crossings to flag an all-clear to the driver. Arvilla said when the bus wouldn't start, she and Richard would pile the students in their own family cars a drive them to school.
"The kids didn't miss school because the bus broke down," Richard said.
"You couldn't do that today," Arvilla added.
Another adventure was a Farris School field trip to the Twin Cities at a cost of $2 from each of the 17 students, $2 from the district and $2 contributed personally by the superintendent, Harold Hemrik. Richard drove and Arvilla, with two of their daughters, ages 3 and 4 at the time, joined the outing.
"I made the trip for nothing, but the kids bought the gas for the bus," Richard said.
Arvilla drove school bus for 30 years, and Richard drove for 48. He keeps his commercial driver's license up to date with the current expiration date set for 2018.
