By Matt Mauney | Staff Writer
After driving a school bus in Plant City for 18 years, Alan Register has certainly seen seen it all.
From the shy kindergartners who are scared to get on the bus to high-schoolers that want to create their own rules, Register has seen the good, the bad and the ugly during his tenure behind the wheel.
Through it all, however, he keeps a positive attitude.
“I do find it rewarding,” he says, explaining how some his passengers, on the last day of school, tell him how they hoped he we be their bus driver the following year. “Things like that make you feel good.”
Register first took a route for an extra income while working for the land-clearing business he and his father owned.
After the business got to be too much, Register took on more routes. He still cuts lawns and does other lawn-care jobs between routes but stays busy with at least three routes per day — Springhead Elementary, Randall Middle and Durant High — in addition to picking up colleagues’ routes when he is able.
After making headlines when a group of unruly middle-schoolers verbally attacked a bus driver in New York, the way students treat bus drivers is under the spotlight more than ever. Although every now and then, Register has to be firm with his riders, for the most part, things go smoothly.
Some of the best memories he has happened when he couldn’t make his routes.
“I would hear that some of the kids wouldn’t want to get on the bus and didn’t want to ride because they were scared,” he says, smiling. “I’m going to keep going as long as I can.”