BELOVED BULLET FINDS NEW HOME

By Denise DuBois Taylor

If only wheels could talk, what stories GSL’s legendary red-and-white Bullet bus could tell! From long trips and misadventures to neighborhood jaunts, the Bullet faithfully served GSL students for 39 years. (Is that something like 273 in bus years?) But what does one do with an ancient and really big machine that everyone loves, but that no longer rolls quite as well as it did? This was the quandary facing school administrators, many of whom had been passengers on the old gal themselves. This decision was as sentimental as it was problematic. “I know how it got its name,” explained Marilyn Kidd, GSL’s equally faithful Bookkeeper of 43 (human) years. “Coaches Nick Scully and Rick Kohlhof used to drive it pretty fast, and the teams on board would say, ‘We’re driving like a bullet!’, so it was actually named by the students.” In addition to the usual brief excursions from the school campus to Snowden Field, the Bullet made some longer hauls as well. Diane Glueck, former Middle School Art Teacher and Summer Camp Director, took young Lukers on several trips to Mississippi, but she remembers one trip, in particular, to her lake house outside of Boliver, Tenn. “I hosted the fifth grade class at my home in Hardeman County,” Glueck recalls. “Some of the parents came along in their own cars. Of course, I drove the Bullet with all the kids. My pet lab came, too! We had a picnic and a day full of fun, but there was a school dance that night, so we packed up in the afternoon. I loaded the students back onto the bus – but it wouldn’t start. And all the parents had already gone. My niece worked for a Ford dealership in Boliver that supplied a couple of vans, but it took about two hours, and we still had an hour-and-a-half drive to Memphis. We barely made it back in time for that dance!” And as the Bullet aged, dear thing, it was prone to increasingly frequent breakdowns. This led to several “face lifts” – new paint, which, sadly (to some), also removed some popular graffiti – and a new engine. Still, it was time for this loyal Luker to graduate, and it has now, literally, been put out to pasture. Home Places Pastures, to be exact. Marshall Bartlett ’03 accepted the request to keep the beloved Bullet in the family. A Dartmouth grad with a degree in environmental studies and anthropology, Bartlett came back from college to his home in Como, Miss., and repurposed the five-generation family crop farm into an environmentally sustainable, free-range livestock operation that includes a USDA-processing facility, retail outlet, restaurant, special events, and monthly farm tours. “I rode on the Bullet many times when I was on the football team,” he said. “Fond memories. I’ll use it for farm tours primarily, but I have some other ideas as well. I love that I can give the Bullet a purposeful semi-retirement – and my fellow Lukers can come down for a literal drive down memory lane.” Editor’s Note: Saints of a certain age believe this Bullet that was just retired is actually the second Bullet, and that the previous red-and-white bus acquired in the late ’70s was the first to (unofficially) earn the Bullet moniker. We'll have to wait and see if our remaining red-and-white school bus will eventually be deemed Bullet 3!

Marshall Bartlett at the wheel of the Bullet in its new home in Como, Miss.

Ellen Hendry and Margaret McLean Mary Jones, Sherry Emerson, Stan Jones, Tess Emerson ’14, William Franklin, and Kendall Jones Franklin ’04 Lorie and Porter Cavette '79

Director of Technology and Shufflegrit guitar player Jeff White sported a vintage GSL basketball jersey while playing the show. Chris McComic ’81 and Amy Amonette Huber ’81 Patrick Whitlock ’92, Carlos Clardy ’92, Libby Shannon, and Justin Taylor ’92

Wallace Ann Sorrells ’07 and Dub Sorrells ’11 Carson Claybrook ’96 and Brad Trotter

Tiffany Shelton, Shonda Sargent, and Jeanna Johnson

Libby Drake Lancaster ’78 and Carol Lawson Clark ’79 Katherine Vergos Riederer, Anna Vergos Blair, and David Upton ’80