Former Waterford bus driver and monitor Carole Higgins always said a picnic isn’t a picnic without ambrosia. Naturally, her surprise retirement party last week after working 52 years with the town’s school bus system had a giant bowl of the fruit salad.

Despite multiple company name changes since her start in 1963, Higgins worked the majority of her career in Waterford as a manager, driver and monitor. Throughout her career, she has been through it all: driving buses with manual transmissions, having to put snow chains on the tires herself, children falling asleep on the bus, floods, traffic jams and twins and triplets who would blame their actions on their siblings. The best part of her career has been the kids, she said.

“Oh, I had a lot of favorite students. ... I enjoyed all the kids,” Higgins said during the party.

This school year would have been her 53rd year, but retirement came early due to illness. Otherwise she would still be on the bus taking preschool students to the Friendship School.

Barbara Brigham, who also works for Waterford Student Transportation of America, said Higgins was her bus driver in high school and later became her manager when she joined the company in 1981. She estimates that three generations of Waterford students have been driven by Higgins, many of whom still recognize her when she’s out and about.

“She’s always laughing, she’s always in a good mood,” said Brigham, noting that Higgins had nearly perfect attendance throughout her career. “She has to be, like, in bed unable to stand up for her to not come into work. I can’t ever remember Carole not being here.”

Higgins’ primary route was Butlertown Road with bus 44, known among the drivers as one of the worst parts of Waterford for a bus. But she also drove kindergarten routes, late buses, field trips and sports teams to their out-of-town games. She finished her career as a monitor.

The retirement party on Sept. 4 was a surprise because Brigham said Higgins would not have wanted a party. Instead, Higgins’ best friend Carolyn Gordon, also a former bus driver, told her they were going to a retirement party for fellow driver Anthony Bax. The party was also a celebration for Bax becoming a U.S. citizen.

When Gordon and Higgins arrived, they were greeted with flowers and hugs from fellow drivers. After Bax was recognized for his work and given an American flag and apple pie to commemorate his new citizenship, Brigham gave a short speech about Higgins.

“[Higgins’ daughter] Joyce and I were talking about when she started driving, and we’re in a little bit of a discrepancy, so approximately 50 years ago, give or take a few, Carole started to drive a bus,” Brigham said, turning to Higgins. “Carole, do you remember what the starting wage was? Wasn’t it, like, a dollar sixty-five?”

“Well, it wasn’t very much,” she replied.

Brigham continued, listing off Higgins’ credentials.

“She has chauffeured hundreds of thousands of students and driven millions and millions of miles in her time as a driver. Through all of that, she has always been there laughing and chugging along no matter what,” she said.

Though Higgins is no longer driving or riding, two of her children and a grandchild now work for the bus company. They were some of Waterford’s “bus babies,” children of bus drivers who grew up on the routes with their parents. Other drivers unofficially adopted them. Higgins’ daughter said everyone would always tell her how nice her mother was as a driver.

Higgins said she doesn’t have any plans for life after the school bus. What she does have is a big bowl of ambrosia specially set aside for her.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411