It’s a Doozy of a Ride

“It was 1946, I was 18, a college graduate, and about to become a spy. I was going to ‘hit the road’. But what was it like—this road—when I had hardly been out of Kalamazoo?” writes Margean Gladysz in her letters to her parents written from 1946 to 1949.  Unearthed from an attic trunk in 2003 these letters detail her employment with The Great Lakes Greyhound Bus Company as a company rat. As a collection, they form the contents of A Spy on the Bus.

Young Margean’s “can do” attitude permeates the letters as she reports daily activities about the people she meets, the cost of meals and hotel rooms, the countryside crops, the politics of the company and the best part–her spying activities.  Disguised as a passenger, she rides on bus routes to various towns to observe bus drivers’ honesty–or lack of, the road conditions, equipment handling, and all things the company bosses needed to know. These were the days before surveillance cameras and Margean becomes the boss man’s eyes and ears.

The fear of being discovered or “turned-up” as a spy was always a worry. She had to carefully plan her bus routes to avoid being recognized.

“My bus is due in 12 minutes and from here, I’ll be able to see its number and the driver to know whether I’ve had him before.  If I have, I don’t need to show my face: if I haven’t, I’ll be able to get the number while he’s in the station, then pop out and ride back.  Just like a soldier—or a spy —I’ve plotted my campaign.”

Her gusto for the work shines: ”It’s a doozy of a report—drinking activities at St. Ignace, non-sleep at St. Ignace, drinking in uniform and the inside dope on a threatened drivers’ strike in December. It took over two hours to write.”

Eventually, Margean travels all over the country, meets many many people, lives out of a suitcase, makes tons of money and grows in self-reliance and self-confidence. She shows us a life before Interstates, before TV, before everyone had a car. We see 1940s America through the window of a bus, a room at the Y and letters sent home to the farm in Kalamazoo. This is a doozy of a story.

A Spy on the Bus: Memoir of a Company Rat

Margean Gladysz

ISBN 978-1-933926-07-0

Paperback $16.95