Wheels on the Bus

More often than not, for most of his life, Craig Mangus has found himself aboard a school bus.

It was 47 first-days-of-school-ago (in 1970) that Mangis, then 19, was asked to first substitute-drive a bus, ushering students from the Bennet Lake area into Malta to drop them off at school. The following year, that fill-in position became full-time and the Bennet Lake route was Mangis'.

"It was the same route I grew up taking to school," Mangis said. "I used to ride that bus to school and think driving bus wouldn't be such a bad job ...I like to drive, and I thought it would be neat to be a bus dr...