Emo resident Carl Cates spent the last 44 years as a school bus driver here in Rainy River District. And while he decided it was time to retire, he noted he always enjoyed the job.
“It’s been good over the years—I’m going to miss it,” he remarked. “I got to know the kids pretty well. . . .
“It doesn’t seem like a long time,” Cates added. “Times goes pretty fast, actually. It doesn’t take long for a year to roll around.”
He noted being a bus driver also allowed him time to work on his 130-head cattle farm with his brother.
“I didn’t have the desire to try something different because being involved with the cattle, it kind of kept me at home and that [bus driver] was a job that worked out well with having cattle,” he said, adding he was able to feed the animals over the winter between bus runs.
Cates would get up at 5 a.m. each weekday and be on the road by 6.
“I would leave early in the morning and be home by about 9 a.m. Then I leave again about 3 p.m. in the afternoon and I’m home at about 5:15 p.m.,” he noted, adding he typically did routes in the Barwick area.
“I started down at Barwick School and went up to the Mather-Potts School in Finland and then when the new Sturgeon Creek school opened, everybody moved down there.
“It opened up in 1974 and have been going there ever since,” he said.
“I pick up high school kids first in the morning over around Deerlock and Blackhawk and then I meet the Nestor Falls bus,” he continued.
“There were a few years I went further than that—to North Branch—and I had to leave a little earlier when I went over there.”
Cates said he got started driving bus when another driver wanted to quit.
“A guy was just giving up his route and didn’t want to do it anymore,” he noted. “So I got his route—that’s how it started. I started down in Dobie.
“Back then, each little township had their school board, so I started with Dobie School Board.”
Cates said he doesn’t remember anything unusual ever happening on any of his runs.
“No accidents, but there were a few times when kids got sick on the bus, small kids, but other than that everything was fine,” he recalled.
Cates retired at the end of the 2005/06 school year in June because he didn’t want to purchase a new bus.
“They’re pretty expensive to buy,” he conceded. “If you run the bus over 12 years, they won’t let you run them anymore. My bus was 12 years old, so I was going to have to buy a new one.”
But even though Cates was treated to a retirement party this past Saturday at the Emo Legion with family and friends, he noted he still hasn’t completely retired from the job.
“What I’m doing is being a spare driver and right now I’m driving for Ken Fisher,” he indicated. “He got the school bus route that I had. For how long I don’t know—I’m just helping out until the other guy is ready to take over.
“After I decided not to buy another bus, I was thinking maybe I should have, but this works out just as good,” he added.
Cates plans on just sticking with the farm work when he’s not working as a spare driver.
“They’re all beef cattle so the only time there’s more work is at calving time,” he noted. “And this summer was so dry we had to pump water.”
Cates also said he’s not the only bus driver who is close to retirement.
“There’s a few more out there who have put in quite a few years—around 41-42 years,” he noted.
“I would recommend it as a job for others because it was good for me,” he continued. “It worked out well, especially with the farm.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
