Leonard Tendall was a graduate of Milford Twp in the class of 1937. Leonard farmed one mile east and 1 3/4 mile north of Milford Twp School. Arnold (Arnie) Munson was a graduate of Milford Twp in the class of 1942. He was a long term driver at Milford Twp and was the driver for special trips such as field trips and Sports events. He, also, was the senior driver for years who was responsible for fueling the busses, tire care, and minor repair. Arnie also was a farmer and lived one mile east and three miles north and a quarter mile east of Milford Twp School.
Carroll Finnestad was the Business Education Teacher at Milford Twp the last year of its operation., this final year was they only year since 1941 that NO high school boys drove a bus. See page 179.
Kermit Molde (‘41) drove a bus his senior year.
Richard Stevenson (‘47) drove a school bus for three years as a Milford Twp High School student and surely holds the record for longevity as a high school student who was a bus driver at Milford Twp.
Lendell Manley (‘46) drove two years, 1945 and 1946.
Arnie Munson (‘42) probably holds the record for driving a school bus for the Milford Twp school system. It’s been estimated that he drove a bus for 9 years. He also, was the driver for nearly all the special events such as basketball games, field trips, etc and the caretaker of the busses.
And as a family, the Ward Tjelmeland family had, at different times, three brothers who drove busses. Leo (1942), Harold (1943), and Wally (1945). See page 229.
These high school student drivers had a very good record of driving while at Milford and took their responsibilities as a driver with the correct degree of concern. However, it is reported in the late forties one of the high school drivers, while admiring the beauty of one of his lady riders and attempting to flirt with her a little, put the bus in the ditch. Luckily it was close to school and the speed was low and so no one was injured and there was no damage to the bus.
Another year, when there were two students driving and two adults, one of the adult drivers, not Arnie Munson, received a ticket for a “slow and go” at a stop sign with students on board. It would be easy to speculate had one of the high school student drivers received a citation, both would probably have been fired, and that would have been the end of high school students driving the busses at Milford Township Consolidated School.
Milford youth had a real advantage in driving busses, as the skills of operating farm equipment had already been developed and the maturity to operate this equipment safely carried over into the operation of the busses. Also see page 269.
Ol’ Milford Farmer wonder if following story true: A bus driver and a preacher arrive at heaven at exactly the same time. St Peter shows them around together and gives the preacher a nice place to live, but the bus driver is rewarded with the plushest of everything. “Why, St Peter, did you reward the humble bus driver with such riches?”, they want to know. “Because,” St Peter replies, “the preacher had his parishioners falling asleep with those long sermons and the bus driver had all his riders earnestly praying most of the time.”