For a great-grandmother, Juanita Johnson is a pretty busy woman. From 6 a.m. to 2 p.m, she drives the Route 20 bus across town to the Georgia Square Mall and back. In the afternoons, she attends classes at Athens Tech, completing the education that was interrupted when she became pregnant, and subsequently married, at the age of 16. Juanita’s evenings and weekends are for her church and her family, which are, as the following conversation shows, not casual obligations. She’s a tirelessly positive woman, one who greets her younger passengers with hugs and kisses and keeps her older passengers posted about job opportunities. I was lucky enough to meet Juanita while taking the 20 to another interview on one cold, wet morning in December. By the end of our time together, which was cumulatively only a little over an hour, I had been drawn in for a hug and promised to send her a postcard from my travels.

Flagpole: Do you like your job?

Juanita Johnson: I love my job… I’m a people person; I love interacting with people, as you probably already know. I’m smiling ‘cause I’m always in a joyful mood, so I like to make other people's day. And I love to be a servant, taking care of other people; this is one of the jobs of servitude.

FP: Where do you think your joyful mood comes from?

JJ: Just loving life, I guess…

Passenger: Being a Christian.

JJ: Huh?

FP: He said it comes from being a Christian. Is that true?

JJ: Oh, most definitely. Loving Christ is one of my top priorities. [To exiting passenger] Have a blessed, safe day!

FP: Do you say that to everyone that gets off this bus?

JJ: That is my motto. And you know what? I started [saying that] nine years ago and I constantly wanted to change it, but the Lord didn’t allow me to change it…because that’s what I mean when I say it. I really pray every day that everybody’s covered on this bus, that they’re safe.

FP: Have you ever had an accident?

JJ: I was on Broad and a young lady actually pulled across my bus on a motorcycle, and her bike got crushed. By the grace of God, she only came out with scratches… We had to back up this bus three times to get it off of her bike. Like I said, that’s one of the reasons I can’t change my statement, because I know God had to be covering this bus that day and her.

FP: So, obviously, you’re religious… are you part of a local church?

JJ: I’m a pastor… that’s one of my positions in this Earth.

FP: Wow… Do some people not take you seriously because you’re a woman?

JJ: Oh, they don’t. Most of the people don’t take me seriously, and that’s just an ego problem and a tradition… I don’t have any inferiority complex about it, because I know what He has called me to be, so that doesn’t bother me any.

FP: But your congregation takes you seriously, I hope…

JJ: Oh, they comin’ to hear the word; they know what time it is, yeah.

FP: And you’re going to school, too. How do you have the energy for all this?

JJ: You know that scripture: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?” That’s where I get my energy from. I try to eat good and get plenty of rest, just stay happy, really; you need to encourage yourself.

FP: Why did you choose to go back to school at this later stage in your life?

JJ: It just came a time in my life where I felt like if I had to minister to other people about what they should and should not be doing with their life, and especially the young people of today… I can’t counsel anybody’s child, saying “You need to stay in school.” Well, hey, the pastor didn’t go. The pastor didn’t finish. That’s like being a part of the false prophets—when you’re preaching one thing and you’re not doing it yourself.

FP: Do you have any spare time at all?

JJ: When I’m at home my grand-babies are there; my great-grand-babies are there. My husband, I have to find time for him… We try to pick one day out of the week and just shut down for that time. I don’t even try to answer no phones, run to the door, taking nobody anywhere. You have to find that quiet place.

FP: Is there any job out there that you would dislike?

JJ: I don’t want to work at the poultry [plant]… not that it doesn’t pay good, [but] I’ve always been afraid of chickens, and I know they’re dead…[Laughs.] The smell is just repulsive, and several friends that I’ve had that work there, they talk about how cold it is. I don’t like to be cold… I’m a comfortable climate person.

FP: What kind of music do you like?

JJ: Of course, gospel. Contemporary gospel as well… I was a lover of all kinds of music growing up, so I learned to appreciate different kinds of music. The music part I don’t listen to as much as the words. That’s the main thing… if I gotta hear a song, the beat doesn’t get me until I really hear what the words are saying.

FP: That’s funny, I’m kind of the opposite. I’m really into the “sound” of the music, and if the lyrics are good, well, that’s a bonus.

JJ: Growing up, I felt that way, the way you’re saying, but after I got older I learned that a lot of the songs that I was listening to—the words didn’t make life sense, you know what I’m saying? So, I [was] just listening to a bunch of crap… this is what I have to tell myself and my family: whatever you listen to or see, it gets in your spirit… it gets in your train of thought, it comes back, it records itself.

Jeff Gore