After 50 years, the wheels on the bus are still going around for one Jeff Davis school bus driver.

Peter LeBlanc began driving the school bus in 1974 after his father retired. His father was a bus driver for 38-and-half years.

LeBlanc said he didn’t plan when he took over his father’s bus route, that he would still be getting children to and from Hathaway High School safely.

“That wasn’t the plan,” he said. “I guess when I hit 30, I just said I still have my health and I was still young, so I told myself I’d drive another year or two, but I just kept on going. I guess I’ll keep going as long as my health holds up.”

The Jeff Davis Parish School Board recently recognized LeBlanc for his 50 years of service.

“What I learned from you was the importance of building relationships,” Superintendent John Hall said in presenting LeBlanc with a certificate. “What you have done is remarkable because you have built relationships in your community for 50 years that is unbelievable. You are still having an amazing career and you have impacted students, their parents because you drove them, too, and you’re getting close to grandparents now. Your whole career needs to be celebrated.”

After high school, LeBlanc said he planned to play basketball at McNeese State University and major in business administration.

“I went to college in business administration for a year, but decided that was not for me,” he said. “I guess I probably would have stayed (in college) because I was trying out for the basketball team. I was one of the 15 that they picked to start practicing regularly, but I had to go to the coach and tell him I just couldn’t do it. I was commuting back and forth because there was no place in the dorms and practice was after classes. I was getting home late and I had to stay up till midnight to study.”

Two weeks after quitting, an opening came up in the dorm, but it was too late for him to make the team.

LeBlanc then went to work helping local farmers plant and harvest rice before deciding to start planting and harvesting his own rice and soybeans.

“That’s when my father retired and they offered me the job, so I took it, but I kept on farming,” he said.

He retired from farming after 45 years and kept the bus job. He still grows his own vegetable garden to keep busy when he’s not having to drive the school bus.

The 79-year-old says his route is shorter now, but the route has stayed mostly the same over the years. He drives about 18-20 miles a day with 65-70 kids, mostly on his afternoon routes. When he first started he made two bus runs a day.

“I was getting home about half an hour later than everybody else, so they said I had to give up one of my routes,” he said.

LeBlanc says his love of children keeps him motivated to continue.

“I guess what keeps me going is when I get these kids in the morning and I can put a smile on their face, that means everything to me,” he said.

LeBlanc has no plans to hang up his keys anytime soon and plans his schedule around his bus route. He plans to stay in the driver’s seat until his cardiologist tells him to quit.

“When I go to him, he knows what I do and that I carry the most precious cargo, so if he has any doubts about my condition I tell him to make sure he puts me a X. He keeps telling me to keep driving because it’s the best thing for me.”

He credits God and his wife for taking good care of him.

He has driven generations of families to and from school, on field trips and to athletic events.

“The ones that have stayed local I still remember them and their names, but some of them that I drove early on and they moved away they come back and call me by my name,” he said. “Their face looks familiar, but I have to tell them they are going to have to help me with a name. As soon as they say it, it comes to me.”

Up until recently LeBlanc owned his own bus and did his own mechanic work on the bus. He sold the bus to the Jeff Davis Parish school system.

“I was one of the last ones to own my bus,” he said. “In fact they were surprised when I went in. They told me to take 30 days to make sure that was what I wanted to do.”

In his earlier days, LeBlanc recalls having to drive his bus through flooded roads to get students home.

“The water was up to my second step, but I knew the road and knew as long as I stayed right in the middle we’d be good to go,” he said.

During one of those floods, he remembers having to use his bus to take his pregnant neighbor to the hospital.

“We had a big flood and right down the road, about half a mile, it floods and you can’t pass with a car whenever it floods,” he said. “She was caught. She had labor pains and couldn’t go because she didn’t have a vehicle to get through the flood waters, so she called me to pick her up and bring her to the hospital.”

He also used to take his neighbors to Mass on his bus.

Looking back at his years of driving the bus, LeBlanc says a lot has changed, both good and bad. When he started driving there were no cameras and bus drivers could discipline the students when they got out of line. The children also had more respect for adults when he first started driving, he said.

Throughout his career, LeBlanc has been an advocate for bus drivers as long-time president of the Jeff Davis Bus Drivers Association.

LeBlanc and Julia, his wife of 56 years, have five daughters, 19 grandchildren and 8 grandchildren. Ten of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren attend school in Hathaway and often ride his bus.