Big yellow keeps Red focused for half century

When Walter “Red” Nelson got out of the service more than 50 years ago, he didn’t know what to do for a career.
Once he was out of the service, he moved back to his hometown of Hayfield.
That led him to buy the trucking business that was in town in 1962.
After doing that for a couple of years, his neighbor approached him about buying three school buses.
Driving school buses was something he never had in mind, Nelson explained.
“I told him are you kidding,” Nelson said.
After plenty of persistence from his neighbor, he was eventually convinced to give it a chance and decided to take his bus drivers exam in the summer of 1964.
Little did Nelson know that it would be the beginning of a lifetime career.
“I never thought I would be a school bus driver,” Nelson said.
Over the years, Nelson bought more school buses, which led to the Nelson Bus Company.
Throughout his career of owning a bus company, one of the biggest positives he pointed to is his fellow drivers.
He explained that he loves being able to interact with them every morning when they meet at the bus depot, at about 6 a.m. for coffee and conversations.
“I love being able to interact with other bus drivers,” he said.
As a boss, he felt fortunate to always have a good group of drivers working for him.
Even when he had prostate cancer, he knew he could count on his career to run the show, while he was out of commission for a while.
“I always had very dependable people,” Nelson said.
In 2003, Nelson decided to sell the company, but to this day still continues to drive a school bus for the Hayfield School District.
For Nelson, his favorite part about driving a school bus is the kids, which he explained have always been great over the years.
“I always enjoyed the kids,” Nelson said. “The kids are always really good,” he added.
Because he has been driving busses in Hayfield for so many years, he’s also had the chance to drive generations of families.
Over the years, Nelson explained that they have had many changes to the way busses work.
One of the biggest changes came in the form of technology advancements.
Another big change now compared to when he first started is the fact that drivers drive more miles with less kids on the buses.
Nelson explained that because less kids leave in rural areas, there are longer periods where they don’t drop off any kids sometimes as long as 10 miles.
Despite the changes, Nelson has no intentions of giving up driving a bus.
“I enjoy it that’s why I do it,” he said.
When asked if he would be driving bus for the rest of his life, he said with a smile “I’d like to.”