"Tiburskis enjoy quick coffee break: buses drive pair together", 1976-02-01

"Ray Tiburski, Escondido bus driver, said he had one regret when his wife, Margarita, became the first and only woman bus driver for the North County Transit District (NCTD) .... That was that she wouldn't be able to bring him a cup of coffee every day. He never dreamed that he would be able to spend five three-minute coffee breaks every Thursday with his wife. That's what happened beginning last week. Like all new NCTD bus drivers, Mrs. Tiburski drives a different route and time schedule every day. But as bus drivers choose their route according to seniority, Mrs. Tiburski chose the San Marcos route for her Thursday run. And she got it. Tiburski drives the Escondido route from Juniper Street to the Escondido Country Club every day. The San Marcos and Escondido buses transfer passengers from one route to the other at the country club. The buses stop at six minutes to the hour from 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. for three minutes. Tiburski said when she surprised him with the news, he was so excited about the prospect of seeing her every hour on the hour that he figured they should turn those coffee breaks into something special. "I told her to bring a candle and a tablecloth, and I'd stop and pick up the coffee and doughnuts," Tiburski said. "I said we could spread the tablecloth on a trash can and have a candlelight coffee break." However, the Tiburskis couldn't find a candleholder, so that idea was scrapped for at least another week. They might not get another chance though. If an NCTD bus driver with more seniority than Mrs. Tiburski decides he wants that route, she might get bumped. Tiburski said he and his wife have been on a honeymoon ever since their marriage three years ago. When she gets off work at midnight on some of her shifts, she wakes him up, and they talk for hours about the passengers they've met that day. On weekends, he rides the bus from their home in San Marcos with their 2-year-old son, Scott Wayne, and takes her coffee and lunch. Tiburski has been driving a bus for Escondido City Transit (ECT) since the inception of bus service on Feb. 18, 1975. After riding with her husband on his route and listening to him talk about his job, Mrs. Tiburski decided she wanted to learn to drive a bus. A friend who buys and sells buses loaned them one. And with her husband as teacher, she learned how t shift gears and maneuver the monster in a six-acre cow pasture in San Marcos. Before she was licensed as a bus driver by the state, she rode with bus drivers in the Escondido Union (elementary) School District to learn the ropes. Then she worked for the San Dieguito and Rich-Mar school districts before going to work for the city of Oceanside, which runs the NCTS until the transit board takes over in July. After 30 years of an all male bus driving crew, the city hired Mrs. Tiburski because she was the first woman bus driver to pass the rigorous job exam. "My wife is really something," says Tiburski. "She is 110 pounds of dynamite. She maneuvers a 15 1/2-ton bus like it's a toy." She's as well liked among the 74 male bus drivers and the Camp Pendleton Marines who ride to and from Oceanside on her route. "Hers is the best behaved bus on the line," said Gil Duran, NCTS public relations director. "They act like real gentlemen in her presence." The 74 male bus drivers don't seem to mind that she's added the feminine touch to the bus driver's lounge. There's now a rose in a vase and a doily."