Willard Lacy said there was “never a dull moment” in the 11 years and three months he drove a bus for the Troup County school system.

The pre-K and kindergarten students, “you can’t hardly get them to sit down,” he said. “They’ve got all that energy and they want to let some of it loose.”

Lacy, 69, said he “just got tired” of driving a bus and retired in December, but works part time at the school bus facility on North Davis Road, issuing parts and writing work orders

“I enjoy that,” he said. “I’ll probably do that another year or two until I really retire” completely and spend more time fishing and gardening.

Lacy worked at Playtex on Commerce Avenue for 14 years, then Georgia-Pacific in the LaGrange Industrial Park, where he oversaw the warehouse, shipping and receiving, and inventory control for 17 years.

He took an early retirement in 1996, but decided he wanted something else to do. He applied to be a school bus driver and went through the training, which wasn’t as extensive as it is today.

It isn’t hard to drive a school bus, he said. “The most difficult thing is all the responsibility with those kids on the bus.”

He drove each day from 6:15 to 8:30 a.m., then from 1:30 to 5 p.m., carrying students from Long Cane Elementary and Middle schools, and Troup High School. His only accident was when a vehicle ran into the bus, but there were no injuries.

The students didn’t like the idea of him leaving. They used to give him cards at Christmas time and sometimes a Walmart gift card.

“I had a lot of good kids, but you do have some bad apples everywhere you go,” he said. “… I miss the kids, really. I had some of them for many, many years. I saw ‘em grow up. I always had that same route. You get attached to some of them, you really do.”

Lacy has been married for 50 years to the former Elaine Railey of Shiloh. They’ll celebrate their anniversary on June 24 and travel to Virginia to see their granddaughter graduate from high school.

Lacy and other school system retirees were honored at a reception last week at Faith Baptist Church on Hammett Road.

Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.