Bob Sagona talks about Stanley Foster, the Bus Driver
I have vivid memories of Bob Foster's dad, Stanley Foster.
I remember Stanley when he was a Long Beach Bus Company bus driver in the thirties, through about 1940. One particular memory I have of him was that he had an artificial leg. He also drove fast.
As a member of the 7A class at the old Long Beach Jr. High School, from February to June, 1940 --our principal was Mr. Cyrus O. Levinson--, all students road on LBBC school buses. The LBBC provided buses for West School, East School, and the Central/Junior/Senior High Schools, located at Magnolia Blvd. and West Park Avenue.
If we lived far enough away from school we'd all ride to school by bus in the morning, come home from school for lunch, return after lunch , and finally came home by bus in the afternoon.. I rode on the West Park Avenue school bus. Neither the central, junior nor senior high schools, had a cafeteria, until the new Junior-Senior High School at Hudson and Lindell Blvds. with a beautiful cafeteria, opened in the fall of 1940.
When we were late for our school buses, we could ride free on the regular passenger busses traveling the West Beech Street route, to the old Junior and Senior High School at the center of town. We rode the passenger route busses free, probably because the Company had the school bus contract
I remember that when we caught Stanley Foster's passenger bus after missing our school bus, there was usually a problem. Stanley would NEVER stop to let us off at school at Magnolia Blvd and and W. Park Ave., because most of the adult commuter passengers on his morning bus had to be on time to meet a departing train at the Long Island Rail Road station. We had to ride Stanley's bus all the way to the railroad station at the center of town, get off and then have to run the two long blocks to the Jr High School in order to be at school on time..
Two other bus drivers I remember well were Paul Bedell and Harry Vogel.
My memories of Harry Vogel go back to when I was a small pre-school boy, and Harry was a W. Beech St. driver. Harry's son, Lee and I were classmates in the junior and senior high years, Harry Vogel was always kind and friendly to my mother and me, when we would ride his bus. In fact, just about all the Long Beach bus drivers were kind and friendly, and everyone seemed to knew them all by name.
Paul Bedell was a very likeable fellow. He was our hero bus driver, because he always looked so sharp in his well pressed and clean uniform, He'd call us all "Pal.".
During the twenties and thirties, most of the buses were 4 cylinder Macks, rather noisy and marginally comfortable. In the middle thirties, Mr. and Mrs. Elsworth Combes bought the Long Beach Bus Company, adding it to the Rockville Center Bus Lines, and Nassau Bus Lines, which they also owned. In about 1935 or 1936, they repainted the entire Long Beach bus fleet, changing their color from brown, to a sharper looking red and grey, matching those buses of the other lines they owned. Occasionally. buses with the other bus line names would appear on the Long Beach bus routes
In the summer of 1936 they bought four new Mack "shoebox" buses, numbered, 46, 47, 48 and 49; followed shortly by a longer one -- 64. They were the last word in modern style and comfort, with front entrance and rear exit doors, remotely controlled by the driver
So much for bus trivia and my fond childhood memories, when Long Beach was then known as America's Healthiest City.
Apple Valley, California
formerly of 90 Indiana Avenue, West End.
WWW.ILoveLBNY.Com
Long Beach, New York
Bob Sagona talks about
Stanley Foster, the Bus Driver
This is a photo of the LB Bus Company's four "shoebox" buses, #46, 47, 48 and 49, around 1936, taken at the Mack Bus factory in Harrisburg, PA, just prior to their delivery to Long Beach.
The photo came from Pat Combs, now living in Berkley Springs, WV.
Long Beach New York
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Bob Sagona talks about
Stanley Foster, the Bus Driver
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