The Bus Incident

Yes, I do know Jackie Whittaker the Powerball lottery winner. He rode the same school bus that I did. For a while.

Before I get into the story, here's a little background for you....

I did not have a lot of clothing while I was growing up. Each year before school started, I would usually get three new shirts and three new pairs of pants. There were many days when I wouldn't pull my sock all of the way onto my foot so I could fold the toe under and hide the hole in the heel of my sock. Sometimes the sole on one of my shoes would come loose and I'd have to live with it flopping as I walked until I could get some money for the shoe repairman.

I got a new gray flannel coat when I was in the 9th grade. By the time I had finished the 11th grade, the sleeves on that coat were about 4 or 5 inches too short. I really wanted a trench coat like all of the cool guys at school wore. I couldn't talk my mother into buying a tan coat like I wanted (we lived on a farm and she thought a tan coat would show dirt more easily), but she did agree to buy me a black plaid trench coat. It came from Sears & Roebuck and cost $27.50 + tax. I was so proud of my new coat.

The event I'm about to describe took place on a day when we got out of school around noon. I don't remember if it was the end of the semester or what. Anyway, I was sitting near the back of the bus on the left side and next to the aisle. Somebody behind me flipped the collar up on my coat. I put it back down. Somebody flipped it back up. I put it back down. This went on for maybe 8 or 10 times. I got tired of it and decided to turn around to see who was messing with the collar on my coat. I turned to my left and saw that Jackie Whittaker was sitting behind me. He was the "bully of the bus". He's older than I am, but he was a grade or two behind me. At the time, he was quite a bit bigger than I was -- I weighed about 130 pounds at that stage in my life and Jackie probably weighed 175 pounds and was 3 or 4 inches taller than I was. We stared at each other for a little while. I turned back around. Up went the collar again. I turned back around.

Jackie and I stared at each other again. I turned back around. Up with the collar. This time, when I got about 2/3 of the way turned around, Jackie popped me on the cheek with his fist . I don't know why he hit me. I hadn't threatened him verbally or physically. I didn't have hitting anybody on my mind. I just wanted whoever was messing with my collar to leave me alone. After Jackie hit me, I gave him a pretty good lick to his cheek. We glared at each other for probably half a mile. It seemed like 80 or 90 miles to me. My recollection is that you could have heard a pin drop on the bus. Either that or I was concentrating on Jackie so hard that I blocked out any noise. I eventually decided I didn't want to ride all of the way home facing backwards, so I turned around so that I was facing forward again.

Well, within 15 seconds, guess what? Yep. Somebody flipped my collar up again. I don't know if Jackie was messing with my collar or not. I turned around again. The same thing happened. Jackie hit me in the face with his fist as I was turning around and I hit him in the face. This time, he made a near-fatal mistake. He grabbed the front of my coat near the top button and I heard my coat tear. He could have mopped the aisle on the bus with me if he hadn't torn my coat. I lost all traces of my self control within half of a second. I went absolutely berserk. It was like a dam had burst. The only time Jackie hit me that day was the first two as I was turning around. After he tore my coat, I didn't give him any more opportunities. I don't know how many times I hit him, but I would guess 30 or 40. I don't remember why I stopped hitting him, but I eventually did. I didn't remember until it was over that I had just got my senior ring a few days before. Jackie's face was pretty bloody and his pride was badly bruised.

I'm sure Frank Arthur, the bus driver, saw what happened. After the fight was over, Frank asked Jackie what was wrong. Jackie replied, "Just a little bit of high blood pressure back here." Jackie started running his mouth telling me how he was going to whip my ass good when I got off the bus. I told him he was welcome to try. I was pumped. I told Jackie all he had to do was tell Frank to stop the bus and we'd finish it. Man, I was hot!!! Jackie told Frank to stop the bus so we could get off. Frank stopped the bus at D. B. Abshire's Gulf station in the western end of downtown Jumping Branch. That wasn't a regular stop and we were the only two that got off.

As the school bus pulled out, Jackie said he didn't really want to fight any more. I told him either way was okay with me. If he was going to fight, bring it on. If not, I was going home. He started walking home -- he was probably two miles from his house. I hung around the filling station a few minutes so I wouldn't have to walk with him the 150 yards to the road we lived on.

My dad worked the evening shift and he was almost ready to go to work when I got home. I think my brother and sister had arrived before I did and told Daddy I had been in a fight. When I got home, I described what had happened. He told me that he didn't think fighting was the preferred way to solve problems. I was disappointed because I had just beaten up on a bully that was a lot bigger and meaner than I was. I felt really good about it. I wanted to tell everybody that I had whipped up on a no-good son of a bitch. (Daddy talked to a Mr. Plumley who lived close to Jackie a few months later. Mr. Plumley told Daddy that he was glad to hear that somebody had brought Jackie down a notch or two. Daddy did have a little bit of a grin on his face when he told me about his conversation with Mr. Plumley.)

Anyway, to get to the point of this story, Jackie never did come back to school. I couldn't believe it. I guess I had shamed him in front of everybody on the bus and he couldn't bear to face his buddies again. Several years later, I heard that he had gone into the business of boring holes under roadways for sewer & water lines.