My First Elvis Record, with a Surprising Twist

By Paul Pakusch

I wonder how many people remember record-of-the-month clubs. You would sign up to receive 8 record albums in the mail for free, or a penny, or some silly, baiting amount. In return, you would have membership in a club where you were obligated to buy a certain number of records after that within a certain amount of time. When I was in high school, I joined the RCA Record Club.  I was a huge John Denver fan at the time and purchased several of his albums, along with other RCA artists that I liked.

I had recently been exposed to a few songs by Elvis, so I decided to buy one of his albums.  It was this one, "Elvis, a Legendary Performer."

The day came when it arrived in the mail. I took it to my bedroom, put it on the stereo and put my headphones on. As I listened, I read the booklet about Elvis that came with the album. I was mesmerized by his music, the pictures in the booklet, and the story of how he shot to fame.

I must've played through the album several times. I reflected upon his popularity and I remember thinking, "I wonder how the world will react when the day comes that he dies."

It was a prophetic thought and I didn't have to wait long to find out how the world would react.  The date my first Elvis album arrived, and I layed on my bed listening, was August 16, 1977. Elvis died that day.

Autobiography Chapter 12 - My Experience As A School Bus Driver

by Paul Pakusch

Prior to being a school bus driver, I spent nearly 39 years in the broadcasting business.  I started in radio at age 14 and progressed to working in the control room of a TV station, a job which lasted 32 years.  I had earned a BA in Communications, and later on earned a AAS in Accounting.  Along the way, I also earned a private pilot's license and dabbled in a few side business ventures.

In September, 2014, my position at the TV station was eliminated.  I quickly put the broadcasting business behind me and moved on.  Over the next few months, per union contract, I was recalled three times to the TV station but turned them all down.

Within a few weeks after being layed off, I decided to try school bus driving.  My wife was a teacher and the idea of us having vacations off together was appealing.  That was the initial attraction.  But once I got into driving, I discovered I truly enjoyed the job and kept it for that reason. Summers off became just a perk of the job.

There is a national shortage of school bus drivers.  I literally could pick whichever school district I wanted to work for.  I applied to four of them in my area and was called by all four for interviews.  I chose the district I lived in, which was my first choice anyways because it was a convenient commute for me.

I had to take a written test for my learner's permit.  In New York State, I needed the CDL, the passenger bus, and the school bus endorsements to my license.  Once I passed those written tests, the road training began.

I was assigned a trainer to teach me how to drive a school bus.  You begin with the "pre-trip" and "post-trip" inspections of the bus, which is a required routine for every single bus run.  The inside check consists of such things as checking all the buttons and switches around the dashboard, the interior lights, all the seat cushions and seat backs, the emergency doors, hatches and emergency windows.  The outside check consists of checking such things as all the exterior lights, reflectors, the tires and every single nut and bolt on them, all the windows for cracks, rubber seals around door windows, and more.

People have asked me if it's hard to drive a bus.  In my opinion, once you get used to the size of it, it's not a big deal.  I am as comfortable driving a school bus as I am my own personal vehicle.  You just have to be aware that you're taking up a lot more space, especially when going around corners.  If you follow the established procedures, you should have no problem driving a bus. You also have to learn how to use the air brake system.  Just about all school buses use automatic transmission these days.

I did learn quickly that I needed to get rid of a lot of bad driving habits.  Most drivers quite frankly suck.  The attitude of learning to drive as a teenager is to get your written test out of the way, learn to pass the road test, and then quickly adapt to all the bad habits you see everyone else doing. People are very impatient, which is what causes accidents.  People speed up to get through yellow lights before they turn red; CDL drivers are taught to slow down for "stale green" lights and be ready to stop when the light turns yellow.  People use road shoulders as turning lanes, or otherwise misuse turning lanes, especially the center lane. People drive either too fast or too slow in the left lane of a multi-lane highway.  People treat stop signs and right-on-reds as a yield sign, often hardly even slowing down.  People don't use turn signals properly, or don't use them at all.  People don't use hazard lights when they stop on the shoulder of the road.  People don't keep both hands on the wheel.  People text and/or use cell phones while driving; from high on my perch, it was very easy for me to see into people's cars and what they were doing.  I'm guilty of a lot of these.  Yup, it goes back to copying what everyone else was doing once I became a licensed driver, back in the day.   In training to drive a school bus, I found I needed to clean up my act.  Now I use my better driving habits in my personal vehicle as well as on the bus.

Once my trainer got me comfortable with driving a school bus, we spent a lot of time driving around the various neighborhoods of the school district.  I needed to see where all the cul de sacs and dead end streets were.  I needed to know the established procedures for turning the bus around in those areas.  We did practice runs so I could learn how to stay on schedule and find houses without driving past them and missing my stop.  The real challenge is finding houses on dark mornings when the house numbers are not lit up.  Hardly anyone thinks of lighting their house numbers.  Good luck when you need an ambulance.  And we're not allowed to use GPS.

When I got my own route, I got up early on a Sunday morning, at 0-dark-thirty, to drive the route and look for clues or landmarks to help me find certain houses in the dark. It might be a certain mailbox by the road with reflectors on it.  I might count driveways from an intersection or a light pole.  It might be a fire hydrant; I named it the "fire hydrant route" because so many of my stops were either just before or after a fire hydrant.  It might be a driveway just before or after a speed limit or duck crossing sign.  Landmarks of any kind that can be seen in the dark are a big help.  I wrote them all down in my route book so that a substitute driver could use the same landmarks if I wasn't there.

The day of my road test, my trainer and I showed up at Emerson & Glide in a school bus.  Of course, I was just a bucket of nerves.  I made a few mistakes on my test but passed.  Whew!  Then I did my initial driving of passengers with other drivers watching me.

My first solo driving experience was to take the high school hockey team to an ice rink.  I was happy to have the coach on board to keep the boys in line.  I chuckled over hearing some of them talk about girls.  Yep, back in high school!

Then one morning I was assigned to pick up an elementary girls' swim team from the high school and bring them back to their elementary school.  So the girls got on, and I looked around for an adult. Finally I said to them, "Do you have a teacher riding with you?"  They said no.  I looked back at the school building and saw an adult waving me on.  "Holy crap!"  I thought.  "I'm ALONE in a bus with a bunch of elementary school kids!"  So, awkwardly I drove them to their school and everything went fine.

I continued driving some more sub runs and then was told I'd be filling in on a regular run for a driver who was going on medical leave.  He ended up not coming back, so that run became mine for the rest of the year.

It's worth noting that my initial driving was in January and February of 2015, one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record in Rochester.  This brand new bus driver was cutting his teeth while plunging through snow drifts in nearly-zero visibility!  Don't I deserve some kind of an award for that? :-)  Anyways, once I got used to it, I was fine.  I much prefer driving a school bus through a blizzard than my own personal vehicle.

In March of 2015, I had my first bus emergency.  While driving middle-schoolers home, I suddenly saw some small amounts of smoke coming from my engine.  I pulled up to my next stop, which was only about 500 feet away, and told the kids we needed to evacuate.  They did wonderfully!  Everyone was off the bus in about 20 seconds, and they followed my instructions to stay together as a group.  I reported the situation to the dispatcher and they called 911.  Once the engine was checked, it turned out to be coolant leaking onto a hot part below it.  The whole thing was surreal; when I saw the smoke, I was in denial, thinking, "This can't really be happening."  Then I tried to wish the smoke away, but that doesn't work.  I didn't know what the cause was, so I took the safest course of action.

A lot of people tell me they don't know how I can stand having all those kids on the bus. To be honest, I was ok with it at first. I felt the kids really aren't that bad, overall. I'd have a few problem children that I dealt with individually.  Kids are a bundle of energy.  It's not natural for them to be sitting still for hours at a time.  So, I did the best I could at making sure they were in their seats and safe.  Many of them got loud; I dealt with it.  For most, they are only on the bus for about 15-20 minutes.  I probably spent more time alone in my bus than I do with kids in it.

Over time, it started getting to me. I was reaching my saturation point with certain kids who kept acting up and getting other kids riled up. A pet peeve of mine is school districts' policies of putting three kids in a seat.  I think the limit should be two to a seat, even for little kids.  They are restless and get on each other's nerves.  They elbow, poke and push each other. They've got big backpacks, and in colder weather, they're wearing thick winter outfits.  I think a lot of behavior problems would go away if districts would limit bus loads to no more than two passengers per seat.

Everything about school buses is designed around safety.  In New York State, riding a school bus is statistically the safest form of transportation.  Students are at far more risk of injury if they drive or are driven to school in a car.  I know people get annoyed at being stuck behind a school bus in traffic, or at having to stop for a bus's red lights, but you have to remember that kids are unpredictable.  Yes, they are taught how to cross a road in front of a bus and board or unload, but if they drop something or a sheet of paper starts blowing across a road, they're going to be impulsive and start chasing after it.

Cars going through a bus's red lights are a real problem. It happens to every single one of us drivers.  I've had as many as five cars go through my reds at a single stop.  Quite frankly, I don't think the drivers were even aware of what they did.  I could see their faces and they appeared to have "tunnel-vision;" they were driving on the opposite side of the road, looking straight ahead, and seemed oblivious to what was around them.  That's a dangerous practice even without a school bus in the environment; every driver should always be looking around, no matter where they are.

The worst busting a bus's red light situation I've seen is when a car tries to pass a stopped school bus on the right shoulder, by the door where kids are getting on or off.  Yes, it does happen! Even in my own school district! If you search Youtube, you can find some horrible examples of this.  I always checked my right mirror for cars that might be attempting to do this, and I reminded kids at those stops to watch for traffic before getting off.

A question I often get from people is whether they are required to stop for a school bus in the opposite direction on a divided highway.  In New York State, the answer is yes, you need to stop.  It's the law.  Why?  Remember what I said about an impulsive child chasing a paper across the road.

I hated holding up traffic and I'm sure many other bus drivers don't like it either.  The red lights don't come on until I open the door; I made sure no one was racing down the road before I opened the door.  If they were, I waited until they passed and then opened the door.  I'm not a cop, so I wasn't out to "get" anyone.  I'd write a license number down if I could see it and do it without jeopardizing the safety of kids.  But my primary responsibility was to make sure the kids got on and off the bus safely.  I was, however, very happy if I knew there was a cop following my bus!  Most people are nervous with a cop behind them, but I know I'm following all the road rules, so I have nothing to worry about; then I'm happy I've got someone watching out for idiots who pass a school bus's red lights.

So, what about those seat belts?  Well, yes, all school buses in New York State are required to have seat belts available for all the students.  They are not required to wear them unless it's a part of their IEP.  The high, cushioned seat backs are supposed to prevent injury if a bus comes to a quick stop.

The reason a lot of bus drivers are against the required use of seat belts is because a lot of valuable time would be lost if you needed to evacuate the bus quickly.  A bus with an engine fire is going to fill up with smoke quickly (again, search Youtube for some examples of how quickly this happens).  My bus can carry over 60 kids at once.  If I had 60 kids who were all wearing seat belts, imagine the confusion of a smoky bus, where 3/4 of the kids were able to get their seat belts off and get off the bus.  Meanwhile, they are in a panic, climbing over other kids who are struggling to get their belts off.  Chaos ensues in the smoky bus as kids head in different directions for the nearest exit, and I'm trying to get through with a seat belt cutter to get the remaining 15 kids out of their seat belts.  How much time has passed before I'm able to get to them all?  Two minutes?  Three minutes?  Maybe by then I'm either forced to get off the bus myself, or maybe I've passed out from smoke inhalation. Yet there might still be some kids on the bus, stuck in their seat belts. Remember what I said earlier: When I had an actual bus emergency last year, my un-seat belted middle schoolers were all off the bus in about 20 seconds.

What about possible injuries in a collision, when the kids are not wearing seat belts?  Yes, there are horrible examples of fatal school bus collisions, but in the vast majority of them, the kids are not going to be injured.  The padded seat backs will cushion the blow if they hit their heads.  If a bus is rear-ended, chances are there won't be anyone in the back seat because we try to keep the back seats unoccupied.  If the bus is hit on the side, the impact point will likely be below where they are sitting.

I really enjoyed the job.  I enjoy the feel of driving a big vehicle and I enjoy sitting up high in traffic so I can see everything.  I enjoy watching the sun rise.  I enjoy being out with the windows open on nice days.  I enjoy seeing the kids on a regular basis.  I especially appreciate the kids who seem to like me.  I got a bunch of really nice cards on my elementary school's bus driver appreciation day.  I was happily surprised when I saw how many of them wrote such things as "I love you," and "you're nice," and "thank you for keeping me safe."

I'm not alone in this being a major career change.  Other bus drivers I've met include drivers from other transportation jobs, people layed off from other jobs, retired cops, retired Kodak workers or factory jobs, business owners, empty nest mothers, volunteer firefighters, a church pastor, transfers from other school jobs, parents or grandparents of students in the district, and many other walks of life.  Everyone has their own reason for choosing this line of work, but we all pride ourselves on the safe transportation of students to and from school every day.

Although I had a lot of positive things to say about being a school bus driver, after 3 years I decided it was time to move on. The main source of frustration for me is that I get the feeling taxpayers are expecting too much of school bus drivers. There is a tremendous amount of responsibility and the  salary over the course of a year is not very much. A lot of emphasis is placed by the New York State DMV and the federal DOT about driver distraction. But they seem to forget that having 50 screaming kids in the back of the bus is a bigger distraction than anything else. If I had it my way, every single bus would have a monitor on it so the driver can pay attention to driving.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Thursday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

My Autobiography, Chapter 11: Accounting and Tax Preparation

by Paul Pakusch

In 1986, the treasurer of my union, NABET Local 22 announced his retirement.  He had been treasurer for 30 years.  Nobody expressed any interest in taking the position.  Local 22’s by-laws had a provision for the Secretary to be a Secretary-Treasurer.  Since I was already Secretary, I was encouraged to take the position.  I did.

I learned how to do some basic bookkeeping by paper, since most computer software did not exist yet.  For that matter, it seemed like hardly anybody had a computer, either, but interest was growing.  It certainly was with me.  After a couple years of doing my work by paper, I made a proposal to the Local that we purchase a computer for me to keep membership records on and to do my bookkeeping.  It was approved and I entered the world of DOS. 

I don’t remember what the original software I had was.  But eventually, we picked up Quicken in its early stages.  I remember it seemed overwhelming because I had to use multiple floppy disks to install it.  CD-roms and pre-installed software on computers did not exist yet.  In any case, I was one of the early users of Quicken.

NABET became the bulk of my bookkeeping experience from 1986 to 2007.  In 2007, amidst strong rumors of layoffs at WHEC, I feared for my future and decided to go back to school and get a degree in Accounting.  I did it part time and graduated in 2011.

I had joined Excelsior Brigade Fife & Drum Corps in 2008 and became its treasurer not long after that.  In 2009, I picked up a volunteer position as bookkeeper for the Henrietta Foundation, a non-profit group that was dedicated to preserving green space in the town of Henrietta.  They had purchased a small golf course, so my bookkeeping duties included the golf course operation.  I stayed on for three years.

For the 2011 and 2013 tax seasons, I prepared taxes for pay.  I also did volunteer tax preparation for VITA at Rochester’s C.A.S.H. program.

After being layed off from WHEC in September, 2014, I rented some office space in Spencerport and included bookkeeping in my services.  I would have kept the bookkeeping and tax preparation venture, but I was having a lot more success as a wedding Officiant.  So, I closed up the office in May of 2015 to focus on my wedding venture.   I did dabble in tax preparation one more time now in 2018, but decided I'm better off sticking with weddings.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Saturday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

My Autobiography, Chapter 10: Union Officer

by Paul Pakusch

When I first started working at WROC Channel 8 in May of 1982, I was required to join the union that represents engineers and news photographers at that station and at WHEC Channel 10.  The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) represented TV and radio stations all over the country and Canada, including the TV networks ABC and NBC.  At the time I joined, the international office was in Chicago.  Across the two countries, NABET was made up of Locals representing the TV and radio stations in their cities.

In Rochester, NABET Local 22 served Channels 8 and 10, and during the 1950’s and 60’s, WOKR Channel 13.  I joined at WROC and maintained my membership when my employment changed to WHEC.

The executive board was made up of a President, a Vice President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and generally two shop stewards at each station.  In 1985, the office of Local Secretary was open and I was encouraged to run for it.  No competition, so I was voted in by acclamation. 

One of the first influences I had in how business was conducted was a simple suggestion. Local 22’s general meetings were usually held on Saturday mornings and were poorly attended.  They generally served coffee.  My suggestion was to change the meetings to weekday evenings, when the evening shifts at both stations were on their dinner break, open the bar and serve pizza.  Well, it worked!  Attendance at the general meetings shot up.

In 1986, this young whippersnapper had the opportunity to represent Local 22 at NABET’s International Convention in Fort Lauderdale.  I met broadcast employees and fellow NABET members from all over the U.S. and Canada.  I learned how TV and radio stations were all dealing with the same labor issues, and I learned how they dealt with them.  This became the pattern for the next 20 years as I frequently attended NABET Conventions, Conferences, Regional Advisory Meetings, and later CWA Conventions when NABET merged with and became a Sector of the Communication Workers of America.  I also got caught up in the internal politics of NABET-CWA. NABET merged with CWA in 1993.  By that time, NABET Canada had separated from NABET, so it was no longer an international union.

My time as a local union officer lasted for the better part of the years from 1985 to 2014.  There were a few times during those years when I was not an officer, but cumulatively, I was either treasurer, president or secretary for about 25 years.  We had some difficult contract negotiations during that period at both stations.  We never went on strike, but we had several instances of mobilization campaigns.  That’s where you go public; you get politicians involved in your cause, post billboards and bus signs, contact the station’s advertisers, etc.  I can remember one negotiating session where we were sitting in a conference room on Main Street in Rochester, and we watched buses go by with our signs on the side of them!

On the day I was layed off from channel 10, I resigned as a  NABET-CWA Local officer.  I have since considered myself retired from broadcasting and recently received my NABET-CWA Retired Member’s Gold Card.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Saturday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

Active or Passive Hearing in a Deaf World?

I once wrote a column for Deaf Rochester News.  Here is a clip from 2007:

My Autobiography, Chapter 9: Out of a Job at Age 53 and Rebounding

by Paul Pakusch

In my previous chapter, I described how I was layed off from my job of 32 years in 2014.  I knew immediately that I was done with the broadcasting business.  Including the time I spent in high school radio starting at age 14, I had accumulated 39 years of working in radio and TV control rooms.  

While it was a lot of fun in the beginning, the nature of the business had changed so much that none of it was attractive to me anymore.  The truth is that, given a little bit of time, I could very easily have gone right back into it, and right back to my former employer.  Per union contract, I was recalled from layoff three times in the next four months.  I turned them all down.  I had moved on.

I had prepared myself for losing my job as far back as 2007, when there were rumors flying around of impending layoffs.  I survived that round, but decided to make myself ready for another career.  I decided to go back to school and get an accounting degree.  I enrolled in the Accounting program at Monroe Community College.  I already had my BA in Communications from SUNY Geneseo, so I was able to transfer in credits from core courses.  I attended school part time and finished with my AAS Degree in Accounting in 2011.

So, in 2014 when I was layed off, I was ready to jump right into an accounting job.  However, I was totally turned off by the idea of working in a corporate environment.  I found plenty of starting positions listed in the classifieds, but all the jobs that looked promising to me were in places I wanted nothing to do with. 

I recognized that I need to explore other options for me.  I went to some job hunting seminars at Rochester Works and got a counselor who was supposed to help guide me in my new job search.  It’s a fantastic program and it doesn’t cost anything.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is struggling with finding the right job for them.

As I mentioned at the end of my previous chapter, I booked a trip to Florida the day I was layed off.  I figured I had the time, some unused airline and hotel credit, and some car rental vouchers that were due to expire if I didn’t use them.  I had also learned that one of my favorite bands, the Spirit of America Fife & Drum Corps at Disney’s Epcot park, was being shut down.  So, I wanted one more opportunity to see them perform.  I travelled to Florida a couple weeks later and spent three nights there.  One day in the park, and two days at a poolside.  It gave me time to think about my career options.

Through the years, Mary and I had occasionally considered the possibility of my becoming a school bus driver upon retiring from Channel 10.  The idea was becoming more and more attractive to me.  We had always wanted to travel the world together.  Working on the school calendar would give me the same vacation time as her, which would give us the opportunity to travel together.

I knew that I would take a significant cut in my income by becoming a school bus driver.  I wanted to supplement my income by following my dream of opening my own bookkeeping service.  So, I rented some office space and opened up a bookkeeping and tax preparation business.  Since I had two rooms, I decided to also make one of the rooms a gallery for my photography.  Talk about diversification! 

I had a great open house event to show off my new photography gallery.  A lot of people attended and I sold some framed pictures.  But after that, attendance and sales plummeted.  I got a lot of compliments on my photography, but very few people were buying.  Bookkeeping was a tough start for me; in retrospect, I recognize that I did not do a good job marketing myself.  Tax preparation actually went quite well.  From the time I opened the office in November of 2014 to around May of 2015, when I moved out of the office, I had a pretty decent thing going with tax preparation.

The big surprise in all of this was a little side venture I had dabbled in that I never expected to get much out of:  Officiating weddings!

 I will devote upcoming chapters to my experience with Accounting & Tax Preparation, Photography, Officiating Weddings, being a Union officer, scholl bud dribing, and more.

Subsequent entries to my autobiography series will be posted every Saturday morning until further notice.  If you wish to subscribe to notifications of my posts, please enter your e-mail address in the form at the right, under "Follow by e-mail."  If you wish to view previous blog posts of my autobiography, please click on the link under "blog categories" at the top right, "autobiography."

Jamming

by Paul Pakusch

Lately I've been wanting to get into a rock band again.  For me, finding the right people for a band is like finding a good mate; we have to be good friends as well as compatible musicians.  The band I'd like to be in would not play out a lot; maybe half a dozen times a year.  I haven't found anyone yet.

In the meantime, I'm now enjoying being part of a Meet-up Group called Friends Who Jam.  They get together about every three weeks or so, just to play and enjoy each other's company.  Here's a clip of a jam session from a few days ago.


Friends Who Jam - Grapevine from Paul Pakusch on Vimeo.