Recently we bought a '53 Ford School Bus in Texas and shipped it to New Zealand.
It's going on to a 2000 Chev lwb duallie chassis with 454 and will become our mobile caravan cum hot-rod.
The other day we pulled the interior lining and studied all the graffiti pencilled up on the ceiling, hoping it would give us some clue as to the origins/previous life of the bus.
This is what we found:

"Vannessa"
"Marilyn Sue Dirkee Soph '55 '56"
"Beverly Mason '55 '56 2nd grade"
"Adele"
"Billings Oklahoma Henry Hamlon '55 '56 age 16"...he's a good boy; he enabled us to work out what was painted on the outside of the bus.
"Loretta xxx Alf"
"Regina + Tommy"
"Gary Goodhart"
"Sharron Wright"
"Karen Dirkee"
"Marlene + Levearn"
"Veronica Grnavey"
"Gary Dirkee 10th grade 9-4-56"
"Billy Craig"
"Ted Riddle"
"Bruce Dirkee"
"Paully"
"Sid Mason '54 '55"
"Amy Durl"
"George Powley"
"William Penn"
"Don Raulum"
"Caroline Wiler"
"William Pearl"
"Dominic Schultz"
(Some of these names might be spelt wrong...they were hard to decipher...fifty years is a long time for a pencilled message to survive.)

And because of what the then young Henry Hamlon had written; on the outside it would have originally said:
"Billings Ind Dist No 4"
We think.
Because painted above that we could make out: "Canada"; and that's a fair step from Billings Oklahoma.
All we could make out of "Billings" before had been: "???NLUNGS Ind Dist No 4"
Well, that's what we all thought it said.
Sigh.

I'd like to photograph the graffiti, transfer it to vinyl and replace it (slightly enhanced,) once the bus is finished.
It's a part of the bus surely; and should be retained.
I'd like to know more about the bus; where it was based, who drove it, what route it ran, and more about the (then) kids that rode in it.
They'd be seventy year olds now!

Can anybody shed any light?