I loathe the bus.

We often thing of certain vocations as being those that are in the category of heroes, for example firefighters, police officers, and military personnel.

I don't disagree, but those are also all jobs that I personally wouldn't mind doing. In fact, I would enjoy them.

But what about the "unsung" heroes?

What about those who do jobs that are necessary, unglamorous, underpaid, and generally a beating?

I thought of one such job this morning as I went with my daughter's 1st grade class on a field trip.

Boarding the bus I struck up a good conversation with the driver, donned in a lovely Aggie hat. My nerves were nearly shot by the time we arrived at our destination some 30 minutes or so later. Yet, the driver was still friendly with the kids and adults.

He repeated the same process on the return trip.

I thought to myself: "No way they could pay me enough to do this job, including the whip of driving around such a mammoth beast. Yet, how many of these folks are out there, picking up kids in the early AM (ours get on the bus at 0645) fulfilling a great need?"

As a student I hated the bus, especially in high school. I still loathe the bus. One of the high points of high school was when Joey's grandpa gave him a truck so we could opt out of the bus. Amen, Oil?

So, until the 6th of November 2007 I had no appreciation for the unsung hero of the school bus driver. But, for those about to roll, we salute you.

Are there other such "unsung heroes" out there? What can we do to show our appreciation?