As I discovered when doing this HerStory recording with Pat, both on and off her bus, the atmosphere she creates for passengers is a special experience. Some years ago, a mother told her little boy, who loved the bus, to say good bye to the driver as they arrived at their destination. “ Thank you, Pat the Bus,“ he said.
We can indeed be thankful Pat Hughes, who is also a Rye Town Councillor, is running Rye and District Community Transport; providing a vital service for adults and children covering all areas of Rye town centre, medical surgeries and schools.
The Community Bus began in Rye 1994 and has since expanded its routes and number of buses, to become a scheduled 326 service. Trips to and from local primary and secondary schools include a special service for autistic children who need the quiet space of a small bus to get to and from school in Tenterden. Regular trips include interschool activities, music and literacy events.
Pat’s buses can also be hired to take the Bonfire Society to other towns, for example, or for private parties (although she is known to be very rude about loud singing especially by drunk men).
In her interview LINK you will hear how Pat left university in Leeds because of “too many Marxists” in her International relations course. How she goes to London to become a mother’s help and gets into trouble because she doesn’t iron fitted cot sheets and finally finds her niche in selling classified ads in local newspapers. That job brought her eventually to the Sussex Express and County Herald and, luckily for all of us in this part of the world, to live and work in and around Rye.
You can hear the full interview Pat on the HerStory website.
Image Credits: Kt bruce .
I always look forward to reading these articles, especially this one about Pat the bus.
She is a wonderful asset for the town, especially for people who need to travel to medical appointments and meetings.
Long may she drive!
Thank you Susie – you are very generous but I’m not at all a legend, just one of a number of people who enjoy people and are pleased and glad to use their talents and abilities to make things work for others in the community. Chris Emson and (the late) Jo Kirkham are my role models.
PS Re Marxists, this was at Keele University at the end of the 60s, and they were SO dreary, remember being lectured about dialectic materialism? What on earth was it – I’m sure they didn’t know any better than we did.