Last ride: Charlie Waca retires after 52 years on bus route

Charlie Waca walked into his job interview to teach at Bureau Township Elementary in 1968 and superintendent Bill Novotney asked him, “You will drive a bus, won’t you?”

Waca has been driving buses ever since, including three school districts. After 52 years, he’ll turn in the keys for bus No. 12 after his Thursday morning route for Princeton Elementary Schools.

He’s developed lifetime friendships along the way and finds it most rewarding when he talks to adults that he used to drive on the bus.

“Adults will say that I drove them when I was kid, and that you were a lot of fun, but you made sure we behaved,” he said.

While he says 99% of the kids have behaved over the years, Waca once had someone light a firecracker on the bus.

Waca drove for Bureau Township Elementary until it closed in 1981 and went to Tiskilwa, his hometown. He moved up to teach and drive for PES in 1995.

Waca has been driving so long, he’s had kids of kids he’s driven on his bus.

“That’s what happens when you get old. You can do things like that,” he said.

Dependable

He’s only missed a few days over the years. He was sick with the flu and strep throat his first year teaching at Bureau Township, but doesn’t remember any other sick days he’s missed. He did take time off when his parents passed away.

Wayne Barr, transportation director for PES, said you won’t find anyone more dependable.

“He’s always there. You don’t have to come in in the morning and worry about Charlie not driving. Always there, always dependable,” Barr said.

“He’s good with the families, they really like him. He’s personable. A great person to have for this long of a time. It’s just going to be different.”

Fellow PES bus driver Arnold “Coach” Felder calls Waca a “legend.”

Waca’s duties have not always been about driving the bus. Driving for Bureau Township, he once encountered a little kid had fallen asleep and wouldn’t wake up.

“He wouldn’t wake up, so I just picked him up and carried him in the house and handed him to his mother,” he said.

While he drove an afternoon route for Bureau Township, he’s stuck to a morning route since he’s had coaching duties for many years after school. He likes to “get up in the morning and get going.”

He has “no idea” how many miles he’s driven, but knows it’s a lot.

Retired from teaching since 2009, Waca parks the bus at Logan each morning and goes for his daily coffee and doughnut and goes home to chat with his wife, Kathy.

Changes in buses

Waca said the buses were quite a bit different when he first started driving compared to those of today.

The heaters didn’t do much heating back then, he said, and “it could be pretty cold for the whole bus route.”

Rather than having padded seats, the seats years ago were piped frame. He said it was good he could better see everybody on the bus, but it was not as comfortable.

He used to have put the stop arm up and open the doors manually where as now it’s a push of a switch.

There were no two-way radios years ago and drivers were stuck with no communication with the school in case of emergencies.

“Might have had a CB radio, but they weren’t too powerful,” he said. “You might be able to get a hold of a farmer if they had CBs in their house.”

He’s ended up in a ditch a couple times because of wintry weather, once to avoid a car coming at him and another time when the bus started sliding sideways on the icy roads.

“Fortunately one of the farmers was there with a tractor and was able to pull me out. The other time they had to get a wrecker,” he said.

There were no diesel buses and all transmissions were manual, he said, and a lot of buses had high-low axels that you had to shift with a red button.