There’s an ad on Goerie.com and in the Erie Times- News looking for school bus drivers. It offers training for candidates 21 and older. School bus drivers are often a parent’s best friend.

When my kids were little, Mary, a retired woman who just loved kids, drove the bus that transported all three of my kids from kindergarten through 6th grade. She solved disputes, calmed nerves and knew that my youngest would come flying out of our house, coat half on as he raced across the park to the bus at the last minute. She watched and waited. So did the neighbors — he was entertainment for all the retirees. We all loved her.

When the kids went on to middle school, drivers weren’t quite as sweet, but neither were the kids. When a kid sprayed the latest cologne — Axe — on a bus, the driver refused to move the bus until someone owned up to it. I’m not sure why this was such an issue — other than the odor of Axe, the tween cologne of the time. In true “I’m Spartacus” fashion, each kid stood up and said they did it. That infuriated the bus driver. And the assistant principal. And the guidance counselor. They must not have seen the movie.

I don’t remember what the punishment was, but we learned middle school was a different world. I had gone to school with the assistant principal and reminded him of the things he had done at the same age. To nuns. That took the sting out of detention. Lesson learned: Don’t let your kids spray cologne on the bus.

I’m sure it wasn’t the only Spartacus moment on a bus. God bless bus drivers everywhere.

Pam Parker is the editor of Lake Erie LifeStyle, Her Times and House to Home at the Erie Times-News in Erie, Pa.