 |
|
| Students find unique
employment in driving the AppalCART |
April
Klaassen
Features Beat |
Jacque Lenz | The AppalachianJunior Interdisciplinary Studies
major Laura B. Uhde has driven the AppalCART for nine months.
Uhde said her peers think the job is amusing while her parents
had trouble believing her until she sent them pictures.
|
When most students
hear “AppalCART” they probably think of the seemingly
monotonous wait and ride to reach their cars or apartments. However,
three students see it as an opportunity to put some cash in their
pockets and adventure in their schedule.
Having the job of AppalCART driver puts seniors Doug R. Moore
and Michael K. Norwood and junior Laura B. Uhde into a category
of their own. They say most of their peers think their job is
unique.
“We had an exercise in one of my social work classes which
we got in groups and had to state what was a distinguishing characteristic
of us and the girl in my group announced that I was an AppalCART
driver,” said Moore, who has driven the AppalCART for a little
over two years.
|
Some
of their peers and family members find it amusing, Uhde said.
“My family doesn’t believe me sometimes,”
said Uhde, who has been driving the AppalCART since March. “Until
I sent them pictures, they wouldn’t believe me.”
Uhde said she does not mind people’s amusement.
She said she gets a kick out of breaking the
bus driver stereotype.
“Usually when you think of a bus driver,
you think of an older, larger man or something like that,”
Uhde said. “Then they see me driving around … It’s
always fun to surprise somebody when they get on and they just
start laughing, and you don’t even know them, but you know
why they’re laughing.”
Norwood said he chose to become an AppalCART
driver because of the surroundings, the people and previous experience.
Moore said he chose it because he hates waiting tables, and Uhde
chose the job because no other jobs were available. Regardless
of their reasons, all three agree their jobs with AppalCART are
good ones.
“It’s about the best job in Boone
town limits outside of waiting tables that a regular college student
can get,” said Moore, an Asian studies major who has been
a driver for over a year.
Not only does AppalCART pay pretty well, they
said, but it also works well around their busy school schedules.
“They’re really good about working
with your school schedule, your exam schedule, tests, weekends
and everything,” Uhde said.
While being an AppalCART driver may not seem
like a dream job, it does have its perks. “In inclement weather,
I’m sitting somewhere where it’s warm,” Norwood
said. “Usually the vehicles have music on them and it’s
just a comfortable job. I don’t have to be out there in the
cold weather like some of these construction workers.”
Freedom and company are other perks of driving
the AppalCART.
“The best part is getting to be outside
and getting to be with people,” Uhde said. “I’m
not stuck inside some big building with no windows. You always
get different kinds of people on the bus. I have had a lot of
good experiences.”
“I get to talk to hundreds of different
people every day,” Moore said.
Simple conversations sometimes lead to friendships.
All three drivers said they have made friends with frequent riders.
“I’ve made a couple of friends I
hang out with on a regular basis and even dated a few girls I
met on the AppalCART,” said Moore, who is currently dating
a woman he met while on the job.
Some of Uhde’s favorite friends are the
senior citizens she picks up on one of her special routes.
“They are just the friendliest people,”
Uhde said. “I think they do this for all the drivers, but
they’ll bring you food, candy, fruit or drinks, so you have
something to do while you’re taking them around.”
As with every job, Moore, Norwood and Uhde
face frustrations. Sometimes a long day of work is difficult amidst
classes and exams.
“[The worse part is] when you’re
really tired and you’ve been studying a lot and you have
a lot of homework weighing on you and you know you have to drive
that bus for the next six hours,” Moore said. “All you
want to do is do that homework and got to bed. I can’t do
my homework while I’m work. It’s not like waiting tables
or working behind a counter.”
Pedestrians often cause frustration for the
drivers, Norwood said.
“There are some really rude, unintelligent
students who run around right in front of the AppalCART across
River Street,” Norwood said. “Multiple times, I’ve
had to lock the wheels up to keep from hitting them.”
Sharing the road can also be frustrating, Uhde
said.
“It’s our job to go under the speed
limit and to be safe because we have more passengers,” Uhde
said. “I may have 30 people on my bus … I will get out
of your way eventually, it just may take me a little bit of time.
Most people are pretty considerate. A lot of people just have
a bad day. I don’t like to be stuck behind somebody when
I’m having a bad day and I just want to get home.”
Unruly passengers can also cause distress,
said Norwood. An angry passenger once yelled at Norwood after
he passed a stop where the passenger planned to catch the AppalCART.
She was standing too far away and he didn’t see her, but
she angrily blamed him.
“She started hollering at me and I basically
told her if she didn’t like it, there was always the option
of walking,” Norwood said. “She sat down and shut up.”
Passengers, however, can also bring adventure
to the job, Moore said.
“I had these two drunk guys on just the
other day who decided, instead of going off into the woods and
going drinking, they were going to get off on King Street and
hit on women,” Moore said. “Really random things happen.”
Moore said he is acquainted with interesting
passenger experiences. The police stopped his bus one night because
they were looking for a murder suspect whom they believed got
on one of the AppalCART buses.
“The most interesting experience I had
was talking to a passenger,” Moore said. “She took the
AppalCART on her way to [going to] jail for the weekend.”
Driving the AppalCART is not only a job for
Moore, Norwood and Uhde but a unique experience away from classes
and homework.
“Every day is a new adventure when you’re
driving a 38-foot bus around,” Uhde said. |
|
|
 |
 |
