MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Sisters Nancy Fox and Pauline Rose Bowling, now in their 80s, began their careers as school bus drivers more than 35 years ago, Journal-News reports.

Bowling, 80, and Fox, 82, are bus drivers for Petermann Bus, which provides service to Middletown City Schools. Bowling told the newspaper that she would have started working as a bus driver earlier if she had known she would like it as much as she does. Fox agreed, and said that the joys and emotional ties she has developed with the thousands of students since the early 1980s were unexpected and touching, Journal-News reports.

Petermann Bus General Manager Andrew Mays told the newspaper that the drivers are professionals who care about children and love what they do. He added that what makes them both good bus drivers is their tolerance and that “they don’t forget they are dealing with children.”

Bowling and Fox have seen quite a few changes since they began driving the yellow bus. Bowling noted to Journal-News that back then all the buses were stick shift, and the drivers did not have radios. The drivers brought a quarter with them each time they drove in case they had trouble with a bus, and needed to ask a passing motorist to go to a pay phone and call the district. However, students are mostly the same, with most being good and “only a handful being troublemakers,” Bowling told the newspaper.

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