Sometimes when I am driving on Sherman Drive between Southport Road and Stop 11 Road, I often think of a family that resided in that area in the 1960s. Bob Cook and his family operated a farm, and he also had a school bus that he contracted to Perry Township Schools. He and my father were good friends and we provided maintenance on his school bus.
During those years, my dad and I were leasing the building that is now known as Long’s Bakery. That building allowed us to work on four automobiles and a couple of school buses at one time. We also had a couple of gasoline pumps located at the front of the building.
One afternoon, Mr. Cook parked his bus along the street on the opposite side from our business. He walked over to our business to visit with my dad and our co-worker, George Frye before heading off to run his afternoon routes.
I was in the office catching up on some paperwork when Bob walked past the windows that separated the office and work areas. Soon, I heard loud talking and laughing coming from the rear of the building.
I had been waiting for the right opportunity to have some fun with Bob, and this was the day.
The lady that lived in the house that Bob had parked his bus in front of was not pleased when she could not see anything outside her front windows but a big yellow bus.
She had explained that to us several times and I had observed her explaining that to Bob on a couple of occasions.
I had been working on a plan for several weeks. We had two separate telephone lines in our building. My plan was to call the main telephone number with the other phone. I would explain in an altered voice that I needed to speak to Mr. Robert Cook.
When Bob answered the call, I would introduce myself as a dispatcher for the Marion County Sheriff’s Department. I told him that I had received a telephone call from a nice lady who explained that his bus was improperly parked on Union Street.
At that time, Southport Road was known as Union Street within the city limits of Southport.
I enlightened Mr. Cook, that I was giving him a break by calling and asking him to move his bus. If he did not comply, I would be required to dispatch a deputy to resolve the problem.
At that point, he slammed the phone down and started yelling some very colorful words as he stormed toward the front door. It was quite easy to see that he was excited and also a bit upset.
I was frantically trying to hang up the phone and look innocent, but it did not work. I was laughing way too hard. Bob was not sure how I had messed with him, but he knew that I had been involved.
It took several minutes to explain and get everyone to understand what had just happened because we were all laughing so hard.
Shonk is a 1960 graduate of Southport High School, a ’63 grad of Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and a retired bus driver from Beech Grove Schools. He can be reached through email at [email protected].