Thursday, October 7, 1999

Fond memories from a lifetime behind the wheel

Medina

Alfredo Medina is no longer behind the wheel of a bus. Yet every morning at 4:30 sharp, the 70-year-old is awake, that familiar rush of adrenaline coursing through his body like it did every time he readied to roll out the No. 4 route bus to Flour Bluff.
   So what's a bus driver with no bus to do, asks Medina, "but drink a cup of coffee, sit on a recliner, "and wait for sleep to return.
   Although he doesn't officially retire from the Regional Transportation Authority until Oct. 30, Medina is just that for all practical purposes. In June, he had surgery on his left arm because of numbness in his hand caused by a pinched nerve. When it became apparent he would require more, Medina decided the time had come to hand over the route.
   "But I miss it. It's in my blood," says Medina, whose journey began at the age of 26.
   A smiling face
   He's been such a familiar, friendly face to many a passenger in Flour Bluff that some he has befriended have gone so far as to bring him Chinese carryout, donuts, breakfast taquitos, coffee and fruit. Medina gladly accepted the gifts, returning those gestures of kindness with one of his own - donating used clothing to the homeless in Flour Bluff.
   "He'll be missed, that's for sure," says Augustin Gauna, also a retired RTA retired driver.
   Some of Medina's on-the-job recollections include how he and a several passengers trapped inside a bus rode out Hurricane Celia's fury, and how he carried a pregnant woman to safety during Hurricane Allen.
   Medina, a Laredo native, remembers the circumstances that led him to land his first job with Nueces Transportation. He was en route to Houston in search of employment when he made a one-night stopover in Corpus Christi to visit family. That stopover prompted a brother-in-law, a bus driver at the time, to arrange an interview with his boss.
   Medina made a good impression, was immediately placed in a training program and within a matter of weeks had a bus route of his own. After Nueces Transportation, it was Corpus Christi Transit, and finally the RTA.
   Happy recollections
   Some of Medina's fondest memories are the quieter moments, like the sunrise that never failed to humble him as he crossed the JFK Causeway in the wee hours of the morning.
   For 12 years, Medina had the Flour Bluff route, a route that put him on the causeway just in time to begin his workday with a new day dawning.
   "Sometimes I'd look over and see some people fishing and I'd wish I was there," Medina says. "Now I can and all I want to do is get back behind the wheel of a bus."
   The paperwork that has now gone through the chain of command, however, reminds Medina that the journey he is about to embark on is one called retirement.
   "He deserves to rest now," says Medina's wife, Mary.
   Medina nods in agreement, and finally concludes: "It was a good trip."
  
  
 

---

  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.