Eastside Heritage Center’s oral history collection contains almost 200 interviews. In the following excerpt from his oral history (edited for clarity) Ernest Hemingson describes teaching in Bellevue in the 1940s.

Interviewer: So, where was your first job in Bellevue?

Ernest Hemingson: My first job was at the Overlake Elementary School.

Int: That was in about 1942?

EH: 1942 – no, 1943. And they also offered me a job driving the school bus, which made it possible to eat. [laughter] Anyway …

Int: Do you remember how much a schoolteacher made in those days?

EH: I think, if I’m not mistaken, I was making about $1,400 a year. And there were no increments there. The basic salary was the top schedule. [laughter] But with the addition of the school bus driving, we made it OK.

Int: So, tell me what your day would have been like, and how you’d fit in the bus driving.

EH: Well, I parked the bus in front of my house because the district did not have a garage. And so I would go out in the morning, climb into the bus, go out and pick up all of the kids, and bring them back to what became the Bellevue Elementary School.

And then, I spent the day in the classroom. I was teaching in eighth grade and shop classes for half a day. And then, at the end of the day, I would climb back in the bus, the kids would get on and I’d take them home.

Int: Did the kids think it was strange that you were driving the bus, or that’s just the way it was?

EH: Oh, no. Several of the teachers had driven school buses. In fact, Mr. Odle, the first superintendent of schools in Bellevue, drove a school bus while I was driving. At that time, he was a teacher up at the high school.

Heritage Corner is a feature in the Bellevue Reporter. Material is provided by the Eastside Heritage Center. For more information call 425-450-1049.