b'C H A P T E R 17S C I E N C E I N T H E D E S E R Twomen were handicapped by high heelsThe Bus Ride and bare legs in trying to get out into thewind and the snow. Mostly, we never did,H undreds of Site buses have traveled so there was a lot of discomfort. I thinkthe roads of southeast Idaho carry- we finally got home around 2 a.m.ing thousands of employees safely After this episode, Phillips relented someto and from work. Accidents were rare, on the dress code. Whenever the tempera -but memories are abundant. t u re got below zero, we could wear slacks.For 22 of the 34 years that I worked at the Myrna PerrySite, I commuted a hundred miles a day to We had a blizzard warning and theand from the Site on government buses, a weather was getting worse and worse. Attotal of over a half million miles. In the the time, I was at the Site. [The roads toearly days, the old Brill buses were ro u g h Idaho Falls and Blackfoot closed.] Nowriding, had straight-back seats, no air the only way to go was to head for Mudconditioning, and poor heaters. Their Lake and the Interstate. So we convoyedgasoline engines were very prone to and headed to town. b reakdowns, especially in the middle ofthe desert on a hot summer afternoon or But a truck got stalled on the on-ramp toduring an icy blizzard . the Interstate, so the convoy had to headJoe W. Henscheid back to Central. On the way, the convoypicked up cars of people that had beenI was one of those who played bridge in coming from Salmon. They crawled intothe back of the buses. We called it bus the line-up of buses and went back withbridge, because the rules were a little us, feeling safer with a lot of company.different. The bus ride only lasted an One bus stopped in Mud Lake and filledhour, so you had to bid to the ultimate. up with beer (although management didntIn those days, around 1961, women know this until weeks later). Gradually wecouldnt wear slacks to work. We had to made it to Central where Riley Foote, thewear dresses and heels, no matter what manager of the cafeteria, caught up withthe weather. During a terrible blizzard, us. I asked Riley to get out the steaks. Hean accident ahead stranded the bus cara - did, and we fed everyone who was there ,van about halfway between Central and even people who didnt belong to the Site.Idaho Falls. The bus driver kept the I washed dishes. People slept all over theengine running to keep the bus warm, but place or played cards all night long.it was a long time before another bus For days after this, I got calls from peo -came along, and finally it ran out of gas. ple who normally worked at the Site andAs the bus got colder, they put the women who hadnt got caught in the storm. Theyin the aisle seats, which were warmer said how sorry they were that theythan the ones by the window. missed the party.The men could get off the bus, turn their Above (top to bottom) White Bus, Brill Bus,backs, and relieve themselves, but the Carpenter Bus, Gillig Bus, Crown Bus, Current Chuck RiceBus - MCI173'