June 30th 2009

I have been told by some that my very unusual childhood would be something worth writing about. It may be of interest to you and maybe not but………………..

When world war 2 broke out December 7th 1941 I, Paul Hicks was only six years old, and was enrolled at Hill Military Academy in Portland Oregon and my sister Gloria was boarded out at Mt.Angel Academy in Mt Angel, Oregon Why? Because…..

My mother and father were so very engaged In their restaurant and catering business that they didn’t have time for a conventional family.

The “House of Hicks” was their business name and the catering services they provided included exclusive catering rights for Paramount pictures when they were filming in the State of Oregon. I can remember going on a filming location with them when Paramount was making a film called “Golden Ear Rings” and I can remember meeting an actress named Marlienea Dietrich and an actor named Ray Milland They also provided catering services for the Willamete Iron & Steel shipyards; What did they do for the ship yards?

Along with providing several short order outlets in the shipyards ie: sandwiches, coffee, cigarettes, soft drinks they had a restaurant on site so they could provide a place for the workers to eat. In addition to those services they put together crews to provide food services onboard the ships the shipyards built when they went to sea on “trial-runs” (The ships had not yet been commissioned so the Navy didn’t have food service personnel aboard)

The “House of Hicks” was also a very large boarding house; There were very few people using this facility that were “live-in” boarders but many workers employed in various trades would come there for breakfast, a take-away lunch and return for dinner..

I was at home, away from the Academy, for the weekend when then President Roosevelt announced the bombing in Pearl Harbor over the radio (This was before television).

My youthful imagination had me taking up arms and going to fight the Japanese since I was wearing a uniform from the Army military school at six years old? Oh well I guess all of us had wanton imaginations in our youth. I didn’t go to war ………………..

What prompted me to become a bus driver ………………..

During the 2nd world war gas and tires were rationed and many people could not afford to drive their private vehicles so they rode Greyhound buses. My parents weren’t affected by the rationing because their business in the ship yard made it necessary for them to have unlimited use of their vehicles so we made family trips in our Buick; when we stopped for lunch I noticed the buses unloading passengers for a meal stop and I noticed how well dressed and professional looking the drivers were as they helped their passengers off the bus and I decided then that’s what I wanted to do when I grew up.
I started driving for Trailways (not Greyhound) part time at first in 1959 until and then full time from 1965 until 1987.

For the first part of my driving with Trailways I worked various assignments some of which included trips I bid on. These escorted tours starting from Portland were anywhere from 24, 30 and 36 days in length and covered most areas of the continental United States, Alaska and most of Canada reaching the east cost of Canada through the Canadian province of Quebec.
I then would travel south back across the border in to the USA and covered most of the East coast including the historic battle fields and Williamsburg crossing the Smokey Mountain of Tenessee I would travel as far south as the road goes to Key West Florida. I covered all of the gulf coast states which included New Orleans LA, then west to Texas and then north west through Nevada and back to Oregon.

On other assignments I would often carry the press corps on assignment with various political candidates; On one assignment I had the press corps on my bus covering Robert Kennedy’s campaign in Oregon the day before he went to California and was assassinated.

Like I said at the beginning of this writing I had a lot of great experiences and I very much enjoyed my professional driving career and got paid to go “sight-seeing” with full expenses and a very handsome salary.

As I close this part of my lifes history I am still employed with the Meridian School District as a school bus driver and will be starting my 18th year this fall