Why Bluebirds Are Yellow

Sometimes I wonder why people choose not to use language the way it was intended to be used. Ads talk about laundry detergent that can make clothes whiter than white but if something is white, it's white. What could be whiter than that?

Last fall at school, we had a school bus drill. There were four busses because there were four different classes, one class to each bus. Each bus driver was charged to discuss how four fully packed mini vans wouldn't even make a dent on the ceiling of the bus. Now this was an interesting comment to make because the facts are such that 42%, of total injuries on a school bus are caused as a result of a collision between a bus and another vehicle. I doubt very much that those other vehicles are coming in through the roof !

Our driver said that the bus could carry up to 50 kindergarten-sized kids because you could put four of them to a row. Regular sized kids were figured at two per row because regular sized kids are supposedly twice the kids kindergarten kids are. While that was an interesting observation on the driver's part, he didn't talk about the possible use of new technologies to improve the safety of kids riding in the bus. There was no mention of including seat belts or airbags, both of which are being researched by the Canada Safety Council. No, the presentation was about the basics and nothing more.

Each driver discussed how their CB radios were state of the art CB radios even though they were old fashioned CB radios. These weren't 4 watt power output, SWR calibration and Delta tune, switchable automatic noise limiter and noise blanker, dimmer control, instant channel 9. CB/PA switch, illuminated analog signal strength/power and SWR meter, 4 pin screw on mic with 9 foot cord CB radios. These were definitely old fashioned CB radios that even my mom knew how to operate without using the operator's manual. But this was the driver's moment to shine, so I didn't say a word.

He talked about jumping out the back of the bus in an emergency and then got all of us jumping out the back of the bus for the sake of getting students involved in the presentation. I got all muddy in the process as I tripped and landed in a mud puddle. Oddly enough, it was a girl in my class who came over and brushed my cheek lightly where it had bruised badly and asked me if I was all right (that's another story altogether and might or might not make it to this website some day).

The driver then asked the class in a loud and booming voice, proud of having done such a thorough job of explaining the ins and outs of school busses, "Are there any questions?"

Not wanting to upset the driver and knowing that other discussions would yield few answeres to my many questions, I asked the obvious question.

"Why," I asked, "are the busses yellow if they're Bluebird School busses?"

And while I never got an answer to my question I can only guess that the reason that Bluebirds are yellow is not dissimilar to the reason people think you can wash clothes until they are whiter than white.