His favorite bus

Back to family matters for a few minutes. . .


When this photo ran on Page 1 last week,

my youngest son was delighted. This is a Saf-T-Liner C2 conventional school bus built by Thomas Built Buses of High Point, N.C. It's my seven-year-old's favorite make and model of bus, and he will tell anyone that a year ago the marketing director for Thomas Built let him steer one around the storage lot at the factory.

If Adam has one thing against his bus driver, it's that his bus driver thinks C2s are ugly.

After Adam learned that Thomas Built Buses is a subsidiary of Freightliner, he became a fan of Freightliner tractor-trailers. When we're on I-64, he looks for newer model Freightliner semis. If he sees one with lenses similar to those on a C2, he says, "There's a Freightliner with C2 headlights." If he sees one with four round headlights, he says, 'There's a Freightliner with HDX headlights." (He drives his teenage sister crazy with this, but that's what brothers do best).

The newer rear-engine model Thomas Built flatnose, or transit-type, school bus is known as the HDX. The "D" in HDX refers to the fact that in the school bus industry, flatnose buses are known as D types.

Conventional buses are known as C types, and the small ones that are built on the frames of small trucks are known as A types. IC Corp. (the school bus manufacturing arm of International) also builds what it calls a B type bus. It's a shorter version of the C type.

At least, that's how I understand it.

That's what you get from listening to kids.

If you want a detailed analysis of how Karl Rove's resignation affects global warming and the mainstream media's coverage of the Iraq war, you'll have to go elsewhere today. If you want to talk about school buses and semis, drop me a line.