When his mother became ill, Robert "RG" Williams was desperate to help get his family out of poverty. He dreamed of becoming a bus driver - to him, the bus represented a way out of the "hood". The only problem, as he explains here, was that he was still a child. I was eight years old when I started taking the bus to school. We really depended on public transport. My dad left when I was a young boy, so my mum took care of me and my nine older brothers and sisters. She did laundry and worked as a cook but her health was failing, so she struggled. We had to pull our weight from a young age, and I was always thinking of ways I could help my family. Out of the bus window I would see drug addicts and homeless people, alcoholics buying liquor and smokes for their day ahead - but what I looked forward to every day was talking to the bus driver. Her name was Louise Garnett and she was a very motherly type. We came from the same community in the West End of Louisville, Kentucky, and she knew my family.
I would sit in the front, near her, and she'd say: "Hey, have you eaten today? How are your grades? Did you do your homework?" At that time I was trying to get into the arts and had a gift for writing and she knew about that. I'd go the library and study Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King. I was quite ahead of my years and saw education as a way out. I spoke to Ms Louise about all of those feelings in that 30-minute bus ride to school and I looked forward to it every day. Before meeting Ms Louise I was always thinking about what I could do for a living. In my neighbourhood there were some police officers and firefighters but not a lot of them looked like me, none of them were of colour - and while I personally felt that what they were doing was admirable and honourable, they didn't have a great reputation in my community.
"Out of the bus window I would see alcoholics buying liquor for their day ahead"
I didn't connect with teachers or police officers the way I did with Ms Louise, she came from where I came from and she was doing something that was honourable. I thought this could be the way to help my family. I first had the idea when I was 11 years old and after two years of watching Ms Louise and reading and researching, I finally believed that I could do it. All of the bus drivers wear a nice little navy uniform with a badge and my mum and grandma had taught me at an early age how to stitch, so I took some of my church clothes and stitched them to make it look like the uniforms the drivers wear. I knew I had to look the part, so I took one of my dad's caps that he left behind. I then took some foil from the kitchen and got some cardboard and made myself a badge and stitched it to my little uniform. I got on the bus, the 19 that takes you to 28th and Broadway, got off and walked into the bus depot. I threw my hand up at the security guard, he thought I was a driver, so I got into a bus, started it up and pulled it off the property.
Aerial view of downtown Louisville and the Ohio River, Louisville, Kentucky
After two years of preparation I really felt I had enough confidence to do this, though of course there was some angst there. My heart was beating fast as I sat in the driver's seat and started the engine. I was awestruck at how large it was. I had a fleeting moment of doubt but then set off, telling myself: "I need to do this for my family." When I pulled out of the bus depot, there was a maintenance truck parked on Broadway - I misjudged my first turn and the back of the bus caught the mirror of the truck. The security guard took notice and came towards the bus, I thought he wanted to tell me about the back mirror, still thinking I was a real driver. I panicked and I just floored the bus, going about 45 to 50 miles an hour down Broadway. Then they rang the phone that was on the bus. I picked it up and I think they quickly realised that I wasn't a bus driver so they contacted the other buses down on the street to look for me. Every time I passed another bus I'd I hear the drivers call in and say: "Hey you know, that bus just drove past me on 45th on Broadway and I looked over there and it looks like a kid!"
RG Williams joined the US Navy
The only route I knew was the 19 bus route out of the 'hood so I went back to my neighbourhood, and the idea was that I'd park, go home and run like heck! But I told myself that I wanted to finish this thing, so I drove the 19 route which leads from West Louisville, where I'm from, into the East side, and that's where my joyride ended. They had set up a couple of buses to block me in then a police officer came up by my driver's side, put a 9mm gun to my face and told me to get out of the seat. They took me to the youth centre and called my mum, and that felt worse than having a gun in my face. I was so young and had never experienced anything like that before but I'd gotten my tail busted by mum and dad before. I was expecting a whooping but my dad just told me how disappointed he was and that I'd brought shame to the family and that was a crushing blow to me.
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A heart-warming story about a boy & his bus
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Originally Posted by resister
