NORTHAMPTON — With the 57th anniversary of the Woodstock gathering firmly in the minds of hippiedom, it comes as no surprise to stumble upon a Woodstockian scene: young people haphazardly slapping paint on a school bus while others frolic in a little muddy pond.
Three County Fairgrounds, eastern edge, Aug. 29
The young people, students at Bridge Street Elementary, are engaged in decorating the bus in preparation for its probable last act: representing the school in the Demolition Derby on Monday at 2 p.m.
The pond, more of a large puddle, was created as a result of the hose that had been provided to wash paint off hands, but the ensuing body of water proved difficult to resist. Bus painters Estelle Nery and Isa Richards dropped their brushes and had the time of their lives — splashing, sloshing, nay, swimming in the ever-rising pool.
Behind them classmates applied paint in exuberant strokes the length of the bus, color upon color, sometimes maneuvering around another student’s artwork, sometimes slathering right over it, create/destroy/create/destroy like 1940s action painters. They then dash to a chosen pail, dip the brush in deep and excitedly return to the “canvas.” They tend not to paint over each other’s names, but handprints are fair game, replaced by more handprints, which inevitably leads to the hose and much sloshing.
“By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong …”
The one most covered with paint was Isa, also the most exuberant, singing songs, dancing from one edge of the camp to the other. “Everybody, this is a repeat-after-me song!” she cries, but everyone here seems caught up in their own world, so she sings both parts while dipping both hands in a bucket of paint and charging for the bus.
“ … and everywhere was a song and a celebration.”
“It’s very self-led, do what you will, just don’t cover the windows and no profanity, but other than that have at it,” said mom Sarah Spagnoli.
The PTO president raved about the school and its volunteer base. “Wonderful families, wonderful staff and they come together for EVERYTHING.” The South Carolina native marvels at the neighborhood’s Walking School Bus. “I never heard of such a thing, just nice retired people who pick up kids along the road and walk them to school every day. It’s the coolest thing ever.”
Among the young artists stood her three daughters, third grader Jo and first-grade twins Althea and Louise.
“Our favorite part is when you go like this,” said Jo, unleashing an arcing swash of greenish paint on the right rear fender. Jo has had her picture in the paper before but it never made her feel much like a celebrity, she said, “because nobody really reads the newspaper.”
These kids nowadays, always buttering up the media.
“The New York State Thruway’s closed, man!”
The school’s bus has had Derby success in recent years, and some luck. After taking a hit in the teeth, goes the legend, it stalled and was out of commission, only to revive in time to beat up beaten-up buses and clear the field.
Althea said her family saw the Derby from high up on the Ferris Wheel last year, which was really something to see, she said.
Could they ever envision themselves driving the bus one day and smashing into other buses?
“Definitely not!”
“Probably not.”
“Yes! Backwards!” said Louise, but finds the Demolition Derby “way too loud, but I wouldn’t mind driving it around this field, but I’d have to be alone, no riders.”
For the record, the buses are driven by pros, the same ones who operate the Demo Derby cars, dispelling the popular misconception of a school simply drafting some brave but hapless parent to take the bus into battle.
“That’d be crazy!” said dad Josh Schroeder, there with daughter Isla, a first grader. Driving a school bus in reverse and plowing into others has never been on his bucket list. “I’ve been in accidents — I wouldn’t want to cause one intentionally,” he laughed.
This is not his first rodeo. “I’ve been here a few times now. It’s always exciting when the buses come out and they see their name on the side — ‘Look! That’s my handprint on the wheel!’”
“Just a nice way to start the school year,” says mom Lisa Kuschka-St.Onge, whose workplace, the Lathrop Community, donated the paint for the undertaking, with the Fair supplying the brushes and rollers. “You see some of the high school buses and they look pretty planned out, but this — it’s a free-for-all. Oooh, no paint on the windows, guys!”
The dark green letters covering most of the bus’s hood spell “MOMS ROCK ‘EM,” courtesy of Kuschka-St.Onge. “Yes, that’s my work,” she said. “I had to put something on there.”
As to where painting the bus ranks in terms of school activities, Jo Spagnoli said, “If it was from one to 10, I’d probably rank it a seven. Field Day is tough to beat.”
“True,” her sisters agreed, brushes ever flailing in the afternoon sun.