Green school buses?

[brewerpaul]

Does anyone here remember green school buses back in the mid 50's?
I have a clear memory of these buses which were already old at the time, but still in use. The explanation I recall is that they were WWII era buses and they were painted green to make them less visible to potential enemies who might try to shoot at them from the air. However, NOBODY I've talked to including my Mom and sister remember this. Maybe I dreamed it, but the memory is very vivid.

[OutOfBreath]

I've never heard of green school busses - if they aren't a figment of your imagination it was probably a regional thing and the most likely explanation was that they were suprlus army busses left over from WWII that were simply not repainted.

[ChrisA]

There's a whole lot of school bus information out there (try googling 'school bus history'.
Wikipedia, as always, has something on the topic, of course.

However, there's no suggestion of green school busses during WWII. If you are not
misremembering, I'd suggest it may have been busses from before 1939 (when yellow
become the school-bus color) that were still in service somehow; that it may have been
army surplus busses donated to the school district after WWII; or that it's exactly
for the reasons you said, but was only done locally (were you living in Hawaii or
California? I can't imagine realistically fearing a 'suprise' airstrike in Iowa or such...)

[Random notes]

The green buses were probably military surplus after WWII. They were used by the military for personnel transport during the war and some school districts may have purchased them. I don't know if the green was for camoflage so much as a product of the army's penchant for painting everything OD (olive drab) green.

Roger

[missy]

I don't remember any green buses..........

But - slight hijack:
Chris wrote:
"I can't imagine realistically fearing a 'suprise' airstrike in Iowa or such"

I don't know about a school bus being hit - but growing up in Mason, OH - half way between Cincinnati (General Electric) and Dayton (Wright Patterson Air Force Base) and having the towers for Voice of America practically in our back yard - we did fear an airstrike. We were told repeatedly we were a prime target through much of the Cold War.

Missy

[Walden]

During WWII, school bus manufacturers had to go to partly-wooden bodies, due to wartime metal shortages.

[Darwin]

The first school bus I rode, back in 1949-51, was yellow. This was in rural Mississippi. Every bus after that was in Texas, and they were all yellow.

I do remember a kid wearing boots with hooks, who said his older brother wore them in the Army during the war. By the time I was in the Army, we had holes for lacing, but the Marines still had the hooks--faster to re-lace, but more fragile.

[Duffy]

I remember some of WWII and all of the post war era. I don't remember any shool busses green or otherwise. We walked about a mile and a half to school, no busses there. They didn't have any programed snow days either. I do remember lots of green war surplus busses, truck, jeeps, and other stuff from tools, to ammo boxes, to clothing.

[Flyingcursor]

And Lucky Strike went to war.

[ChrisA]

edit: Maybe I'll move this over to the spinoff thread.