Are school-bus rides to school in the early morning hour the same as when we were kids, back during the fifties, early sixties..and all the nuclear panic? droll drills, duck and cover, and all of that?? I think not! I remember all the jeering, and cheering of pandemonium-makers on those somber, jarring rides, ruffians wrestling back and forth on stiff school-bus seats by open windows of adjustable height that we had liberty to select, –all UP, or all DOWN..and anywhere in between, roaring to the next stop to the CHIRP! of air-brakes and pick up more anarchists to deliver into the hands of indoctrinators in classrooms at each of the several schools distributed about town. They were cool times..cold, even! it was the Cold War. And normal, too, gliding in on a trail of diesel smokes to an abrupt stop, front of the main office where secretaries manned the telephones beneath flickering shadows of a giant American flag, military issue, waving high overhead under blue skies – proudly, and strictly according to code – proclaiming us all joint heirs of the Republic, never,EVER! defeated in battle..or any other thing, our Christian foundations, there, sturdy and sure, to carry us confidently through any horrible development that might develop (horribly); like a brooding, nationally televised international crisis, wrought through failures of diplomacy between our leadership, and a belligerent foreign power; or the assassination of a president, splashed serially across covers of LIFE; and the failure of milk to arrive on the front porch – before dad’s blasted off at 5 am for the daily grind working defense industry jobs – due to some unforeseen tragedy involving the milk-man..his wife was cheating with the realtor-guy. From that interruption of local goods and services – enough of an inconvenience already – to Cronkite breaking in on Perry Mason and bringing us the latest update about Russian missiles being set up and aimed at us from Cuba, there was relatively little need for ‘Gus’ the bus-driver to worry about the sudden explosions of laughter obliterating the steady rhythms of taunts and chatter, echoing gangster fashion from the back bench-seat at the rear EMERGENCY door, to his hairy deaf ears behind the steering-wheel, the din and furor escaping from inside the school-bus and reaching into nearby windows of neighbors in the neighborhoods, as our yellow-orange juggernaut of un-chained youthful energy passed by, oblivious to bacon and eggs and toast on a plate, bathed in rays of a morning sun, being presented willy-nilly to high-schoolers on the verge of grabbing textbooks, and jumping in automobiles smoking a sweet smell of pure hi-octane..to put a lump of energy in their gut so they could make it to the lunch hour, through math classes and history and civics lessons..band practice, et cetera, etc., beginning in the home room classroom by reciting..in unison: “I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America..and to The Republic, for which..” and so on, and so on. Yes. I don’t believe we shall ever see those days again, –“one nation, under God..”