We should all thank Alvin Lee.
Who's Alvin Lee, you're wondering?
Well, glad you asked.
Alvin Lee is one of those people who make life better.
He is a family man who showed up to work every day, did his job until it was time to retire and never cut a corner.
Jay GreesonAnd for his 52 years behind the steering wheel of a Hamilton County school bus, the Hamilton County Commission honored Lee on Wednesday morning.
Yes, 52 years.
"I want to thank each one of you for this," Lee told commissioners, humbly accepting the acknowledgement of a life's work well done. "I loved those kids like they were my own. I didn't want to quit, but knew after 52 years and never having an accident, it was time to go."
But wait, there's more.
Lee's family has managed the same route in East Hamilton County since his great uncle Matt Davis first started driving a school bus in the early 1900s.
Alvin's dad, J.C., took over for Davis, and now Alvin's granddaughter, Christy Hullender, is handling the route that is as much a family business in this neck of the woods as the Berkes practicing law, the Luptons doing Co-Colas and the Waffle House slinging hash browns.
In fact, Chester Bankston, who presented Lee with his commendation, rode ol' bus 57 when J.C. was driving way back when.
"I know I couldn't do what they have," Bankston said, "it's amazing."
When asked if he was a good bus rider back in his youth, Bankston paused before smiling and revealing at least one incidence when J.C. Lee had to get serious with the young Bankston.
"I know one time I was acting up and he put me off the bus and made me walk home," Bankston said. "You could do that back then, but not today."
In a way that adds to the lore of big yellow lineage that started with a great uncle, continued through until last year when Alvin retired and carries on today with Hullender.
Think how many things change.
Alvin Lee, who will be 71 in June, started making the wheels on the bus go round and round at a young age. Since then it's been family and church and getting generations of kids to and from school safely.
It wasn't glamorous. Heck, think how many of us probably need to track down our former bus drivers and apologize.
It wasn't the type of job that makes you rich.
But it was rewarding, and for that Lee is forever grateful for his interaction with so many students.
And we should be just as grateful.
"I was so nervous the last couple of weeks [at the end of last year before he retired]," Lee said, "because all I could think about was I had never had a wreck with students on the bus. I was just hoping to get to the finish line."
Of course, even the utmost professional like Lee, who was inducted in 2015 into the national bus drivers hall of fame, can't help but take the job home with him.
"Oh, he drives us," said Betty Lee, Alvin's wife. "And if he doesn't he's such a back-seat driver that I might as well get out and let him drive anyway."
Sounds like a good idea, Betty, especially considering the tens of thousands of kids Alvin Lee shuttled to and from schools in our area before hanging up his keys last spring.
"I miss it, but not as much as I thought I would," Lee said.
Well, Alvin, truth be told, we as a community miss you and your commitment more than we likely will ever know.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.