OWLS HEAD — It was 1962 and as the big yellow school bus crept over the hill along North Shore Drive to the tiny village just above Owls Head Harbor, children spilled out of their homes to the edge of the road. "Here comes the bus!" was the refrain, as it was every school day morning across America. But in this special case, it was Bud Wood at the wheel, a big-hearted man who was about to become famous in Life magazine, and then have a book written based on his life. The children, however, were not thinking about any of that. They were just looking forward to the highlight of their day: Climbing aboard Buddy's bus for the ritual ride to school.

Lucy Dyer Levenseler was likely fixing her black turtle hat to her head. Melissa Fales may have been carrying her live duck in her arms. If it was deep winter, they may have been thinking about how to grab the hot seat, a special perch right above the vehicle's heater that everyone wanted.

Don (Donnie) Morang would be the lookout for the bus bending around the curve. "Here it comes!" he'd shout.

"I always looked forward to that time of day, and to be in the care of Buddy," he said.

In 1962, Owls Head was full of children, and Bud (Herbert Bud Wood) had that rare combination of gentleness and firmness to handle a busload of them as they traveled daily to and from Owls Head Central School and Guilford Butler School in South Thomaston, where Kindergarten classes were held. 

Melissa Fales remembered Buddy as someone who was just plain fun, "you could joke with him." Yes, she may have been kicked off the bus a few times when she was older because she got a little sassy, but that did not affect her friendship with Buddy. In fact, she is quoted in Life at age five that she was going to marry him (never mind that he was already married to Lee).

Sixty four years later, five of those children, who are now turning 70 or are just a few years older, gathered for a mini-celebration of their milestones and to honor Bud Wood for his remarkable kindness and care. 

It was a small reunion of sorts, around a few picnic tables at the Owls Head General Store. By coincidence — and they all were delighted at the synchronicity — their gathering fell on May 4, 2026, exactly 64 years after a photo spread was published in Life, May 4, 1962 featuring Bud Wood. Life's headline was, "Bud Wood Drives a School Bus. He is the Best-loved Man in Town." The subhead was: "A Tough, Tender Life in the Driver's Seat."

The gathering was also bittersweet. Brother and sister Don Morang and Kelly Morang Sprowl had lost their sister, Colleen Margaret Morang, in January and her service was held in late April. Colleen had been born with a bone disease, and she did not attend school, nor did she ride the bus with the other children. That is, not the daily route; but, Bud would swing by the Morang house occasionally when the rest of the children had been delivered to school, carry her out and take her for a ride on the yellow school bus. The Life article also notes that Bud would carry nine-year-old Craig Smith, 9, who suffered from arthritis, from his doorstep to the bus every day so he could get to school.

It was not only remembrance of Bud that drew Don, Kelly, Lucy, Melissa and Pam together May 4: In addition to the Life magazine article, they had been integral to the characters in Here Comes the Bus, the children's book by Carolyn Haywood. That book was published in 1963, a year after the Life article, and it was about riding the bus to school in winter, in rural America. At its core was Bud Wood (known as Mr. Riley in the book, his cast of local Owls Head children, and their daily adventures on the bus.

How Haywood got to Maine's Midcoast to compose the book remains a small mystery, but she had written on the book's introduction page: "Any resemblance between Mr. Riley the bus driver and Bud Wood of Rockland, Maine, is purely intentional and is the result of the author's personal acquaintance with Bud and his Owls Head school bus."

Haywood was one of the preeminent children's author in the United States during the postwar baby boom years of the 1950s – 1970s. She wrote and illustrated 47 books, continuing her craft until she died at 90 in 1990. Here Comes the Bus was number 28 in her list of books, all of which were read far and wide.

The children aboard Haywood's bus, although fictional, were based on the Owls Head Village children. Lucy's house is still standing, although the home of Don and Kelly, which was next to the library, has since been torn down. They remember, ever so slightly, Haywood riding the bus with them a few times as she was writing Here Comes the Bus.

Pam Vasso grew up to be a bus driver herself, for St. George. She instituted practices aboard her buses with the best of what she learned as a child.

Three generations of local students had Bud Wood for their bus driver and the theme of kindness and care remains synonymous with his name in perpetuity.

"I had a feeling of safety and I felt he truly cared about us," said Kelly.

Sometimes, Bud's wife, Lee Dudley (who died in 1967), would drive the bus. She stood out with her buckskin coat with the fringes on the sleeves. "I remember that because I was into horses," said Melissa.

"She was so pretty," said Kelly.

Lucy remembers Bud's gentleness and firmness.

"I don't know if I've ever known anybody in my life like him," she said.

Malissa Molasses in Here Comes the Bus is based on Melissa Fales and Haywood wrote to her parents in 1962: "You will be interested to know that I have just learned that a friend of mine whose name is also Malissa was also Malissa Molasses when she was a little girl. This name was given to her because she had red hair. When the book is finished, I will send a copy to Malissa."

If you gather a group of old friends who are now in their seventh decade of life and ask them to reflect on their childhood, it is a general truth that they will easily fall back into those years without hesitation. The five who gathered May 4 in Owls Head were as mirthful as seven-year-olds, teasing, laughing and interrupting each other. The cares of their lives shed away with the relived memories and they sounded like they were back on the bus.

Why Life editors sent photographers to Owls Head, no one seems to know.

"The book was generated because of a Life magazine article," one asked?

"Yes, about a local bus driver," said another.

"I honestly don't know," said a third.

"And that's how she ended up down in Owls Head?"

"We don't know," they laughed. "We were kids. We were little."

"I was happy to be with Buddy because I loved him so much," said Lucy. "We all did," they said.

The Life photographer was likely Hella Hammiel. Kelly remembers a woman photographing her the moment Kelly planted a kiss on Buddy's cheek, as she did every afternoon stepping onto the roadside.

"I had gotten off the bus and he was talking with the magazine person," she said. "I didn't care. I did my daily ritual and she goes, 'oh my gosh, would you do that again?' That is when she snapped the picture."

Bud Wood, they remembered, never raised his voice, except: "He did once," said Lucy. There was a young student... this isn't for publication..."

The bottom line: Kids were bullying her.

"He pulled the bus over and stood up," Lucy said. "He hollered — and he had never hollered — I can see him now. He walked down the aisle and I recall his words were, 'be kind.' We were all horrified. He never hollered before or after that. And it did not change our feeling about him."

Melissa recounted another time: "We were going down the Dublin Road because we were going to Guilford Butler. Buddy spotted some ducks and stopped, and the kids went all to one side of the bus. We thought we were going to tip over. We were fascinated. We got to school and I remember the principal and all these big people, the teachers, were waiting at the door. They called Buddy into the office."

Bud Wood called to the office? Students were worried.

"But then he came out, went by me and he winked," said Melissa. "Good, I thought. Buddy's OK. But you could hear them in there. He was late, which made all of us late."

"He got in trouble," asked Kelly.

"Oh, he did," said Melissa. "But I thought it was great because he was in the principal's office, and he winked, and he was OK."

Their conversation turn to Pam's time behind the wheel. Lucy said, "it is interesting that Pam has been a bus driver."

"It wasn't my lifelong career," said Pam. "It was at the end of my working full time."

And, she liked it.

You have to be really calm?

"No you don't," said Pam, and they laughed. "But you have to be very responsible and aware."

"And being a good driver would help," someone else laughed.

Pam, who holds a degree in special education, started her Bus Buddies program, in reference to Bud Wood. She received a $500 grant to get the GREF program underway.

"It was about being friends and helping each other," she said. "And I had books and coloring, and I would pair up older kids with younger kids to keep the younger kids anchored. It worked pretty well."

Buddy's bus route started in Rockland, looped to Owls Head Village, down to the Crescent Beach area and then Ash Point.

Lucy's grandmother lived on Ash Point, across from the airport.

"A few times, Buddy would let Lucy and I off in the morning at her grandmother's [Inez Montgomery] so we could go in and get fresh biscuits, fresh danishs, whatever she was making," said Kelly.

"Donuts," said Lucy.

"You'd walk in and you could smell it," said Kelly. "We'd walk in and get something yummy. Buddy would continue his route to a dead-end down at Trails End, and pick us up on the way back. Hopefully, we shared with Buddy."

"And he drove us to Canada," said Pam.

"Twice!" said Melissa. "To Moncton."

That was in high school, and where the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall is remembered, with Jimmy Jewett — "who was like a professional guitarist in high school," said Melissa — "He had his guitar and we sat in the back, and then we changed to the Yellow Submarine, and the Yellow Buddy Bus, and Jeremiah the Bullfrog. By the time Buddy got done — he listened to this for four or five hours — Jimmy's nails were about gone."

At Buddy's memorial service, there were three huge trifold boards filled with the school pictures of all of the students who rode his bus, three generations. On a Nov. 5, 2025 Rockland, Maine History Facebook page the memories flowed about Buddy.

"Every day, it was a feeling of safety, and even as a young, tiny person, I felt like he truly cared about us," said Kelly. "He was there to protect us and get us to school safe and sound."

For the kids who were immortalized in the book Here Comes the Bus and on the pages of Life magazine, the early 1960s in Owls Head was a time when community was strong. Bud Wood was a foundation of that sturdiness. His name is spoken with affection and admiration, a role model that three or four generations of children, one children's book author and the editorial staff of Life magazine recognized as rare and noteworthy.

Children who were lucky enough to ride his bus remember him most authentically, their hearts and mind uncluttered and innocent. They moved those qualities forward in their own lives, knowing that a bright yellow bus is cause for a hopeful day, and a happy greeting from the bus driver makes the world of difference.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657