“The little girl asked Joe, ‘Who’s she?,’ pointing at me. And he replied, ‘Oh, that’s my girlfriend.’ She came over to me, gave me a funny kind of look, and then kicked me,” she recalled with a laugh. “Then she marched back to her seat and sat down.”

Sixty years later, her bus encounter remains a favorite story of the school bus driving days of Tjaden and four close friends in their late teens who drove for the Fort Dodge Community School District to earn money to pay for their classes at Fort Dodge Community College (FDCC).

The friendship of those Five Amigos — Daryl Beall, Jeff Brooks, Jim Janvrin, Jim Lloyd and Joe Tjaden — continued for decades to come as they left Fort Dodge to attain college degrees, began successful careers, married, and started families.

They were close, especially in the early years. Three of them — Beall, Brooks and Tjaden — attended Buena Vista University in Storm Lake after FDCC and graduated in 1969. Beall and Lloyd were groomsmen in Janvrin’s wedding. Beall ran for student body president while at FDCC and Lloyd was the manager for his successful campaign.

With the passage of six decades since they bonded as friends and bus drivers, just two of the five are alive – Beall, who lives in Fort Dodge with his wife Jo Ann, and Brooks, who lives in Northbrook, Illinois, and La Quinta, California, with his wife, Marilyn.

The first to die was Tjaden, a 6-foot-6 football and basketball player in high school and at FDCC, of heart failure, in 1994 at his home in Willmar, Minnesota. Janvrin, who starred in track at Fort Dodge Senior High, also died of heart failure, in 2024 at his home in suburban Phoenix. Lloyd, a Vietnam veteran and longtime employee of the Social Security Administration, died of cancer on May 26 at his home in suburban Washington, D.C.

Driving a bus was attractive to the five young men, both for the pay and the hours available for college study between their morning and afternoon bus routes. They had to take both a written and driving test for what was then a commercial driver’s license. Retired State Patrol Sgt. Lloyd Meyer and retired Fort Dodge Police Chief Gene Zenor were their supervisors.

“In many ways, driving a school bus was the first real job I had,” Brooks said. “Sure, I had spent summers with part time jobs (usually working for my dad at Brooks Laundry and Dry Cleaning), but at 19 years old, the responsibility of safely getting a group of 25 kids to school and home again every day was a big leap. Learning to drive the larger buses, which all of us migrated toward, was a skill in itself. And controlling a group of children (ages 6 to 17) was also a skill to be learned. It probably influenced to some degree my direction to go into teaching.

“I’ve always looked back at that time in my life as a giant ‘first step.’ The drivers, most of us working our way through junior college, were all finding our way just out of high school. The responsibility thrust at us was a new experience. Just the importance of showing up on time was critical to so many lives other than our own, that we dared not be late or call in sick. Most of us had been driving cars for only three or four years so piloting those beasts through the traffic around the schools was a challenge. I’ve always wondered if putting kids in the back of a bus driven by a teenager, a rookie at best, was a good idea. But we seldom had a mishap, and my only accident was when a lady plowed into the back of my stopped school bus (lights flashing) outside of Coleman … and no one was hurt.”

A memorable part of the School Bus Amigos was meeting up after their morning school bus routes at the coffee shop in the Super Value (15th Street and Second Avenue North) for fresh, just out-of-the oven, cinnamon rolls and coffee.

Brooks said, “But of course, the real reason we gathered was the camaraderie that made us fast friends for years to come. Between those morning coffee klatches and our late nights at Del Porters Pancake House, we solved many of the world’s problems, at least through the eyes of a teenager.”

Those school kids who once rode in the Amigos’ school buses are now in their 60s and 70s. For those who might wonder whatever became of their drivers, here is a recap of each:

• Daryl Beall has been a teacher, businessman, newspaperman, state senator, political activist and community volunteer — and a world traveler who has visited all 50 states and about 60 countries on all seven continents. He met Jo Ann Hasty at FDCC, and they were married at the Little Brown Church near Nashua in 1968. After graduating from FDCC, Beall attended the University of Northern Iowa, then transferred to Buena Vista University where he received a Bachelor’s degree in 1969. He taught political science courses at Urbandale High School and earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Drake University. The Bealls returned to Fort Dodge where he managed Furniture World from 1974 to 1984 and was twice elected to the Fort Dodge school board. He became general manager of The Hometown Register in Fort Dodge, a publication of The Des Moines Register. In 2002, Beall, a Democrat, was elected to the first of three four-year terms as an Iowa state senator. He and Jo Ann have three children — Lora Sue, Scott and Christen — and 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren (and two more on the way). His life changed dramatically in January 2024 when he collapsed and was taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. He experienced another fall four months later. Since then, he has undergone speech, physical and occupational therapies and numerous doctors’ appointments. He is feeling better, but not driving and uses a cane for balance. His love for travel endures.

• Jeff Brooks, whose family operated one of Fort Dodge’s best-known businesses, Brooks Laundry and Dry Cleaning, attended Buena Vista University after graduating from FDCC and earned a degree in the social sciences. After earning a master’s in secondary education at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, he went to work as a teacher in Kingman, Arizona, for three years before returning home to join Fort Dodge Laboratories as a product salesman calling on veterinarians. He was to be transferred to North Platte, Nebraska., when former Fort Dodger Jim Protzman hired him into the securities industry in Omaha. Over the next 25 years, Brooks worked in public finance selling municipal and corporate bonds to large investment companies and creating bond issues as an investment banker. He left the securities industry and began buying small businesses to see if he could improve their operations. The last one he bought was Houseworks Daylighting Solutions in Glenview, Illinois, and he still owns the company. He met his wife Marilyn (Eckert) in 1976 when she was the manager of a high-rise apartment building. They were married in 1981 and have two children, Eleanor Michelle Brooks (Ellie) and Robert Eckert Brooks. Brooks and his wife spend six months each year wintering in California., and six months in Illinois, running his skylight company.

• Jim Janvrin, a track star at Fort Dodge Senior High, was the son of former Fort Dodge Mayor Jim Janvrin and his wife, Dorothy. He met his wife Cathy (Ueltschy) when both worked at Fort Dodge Fruit and Grocery. After graduating from FDCC, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in education and an MBA at the University of Northern Iowa. He and his wife taught for a number of years in Denver, Iowa. He then worked with Dubuque Foods and as a regional manager for Hormel Foods. They had two children — Jim Janvrin Jr., of Elkhorn, Nebraska., and Barbie Ekeler, of Redondo Beach, California. She is married to Mike Ekeler, longtime college football coach who is now the special teams coach at the University of Southern California. Jim’s sister, Karrey, is married to Steve Lindeberg of Fort Dodge and they live in Spirit Lake. Jim’s brother Todd Janvrin, of Overland Park, Kansas., also drove school buses while attending Iowa Central. Todd recalled, “The person who hired me recognized the name and I’m pretty sure it went a long way for me getting the job.” Janvrin died in May 2024 of heart failure while living near Queen Creek, Arizona., a suburb of Phoenix. He was 77. They moved there after living at Twin Lakes from 1993-2016. Cathy died in April 2025.

• Jim Lloyd joined the Army in early 1968 after receiving his draft notice and was assigned to Harlingen, Texas, as part of a five-man veterinary detachment. It was there he met Babette Fulwider, whom he married in 1969. Four months later, he got orders for Vietnam and was assigned to the Army base at Long Binh as a food inspector. He returned home in 1970 and attended Pan American University (now the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley) and graduated in 1972 with a degree in government. He joined the Social Security Administration in 1973 and retired in 2008 after 35 years of service, most of it in Washington. He and his wife Babs were parents of two daughters, Heather and Tiffany, and five granddaughters. Lloyd died May 26 under hospice care at his home in Herndon, Virginia, a Washington suburb. He was 80. After fiercely fighting through and surviving multiple cancers, open heart surgery and a life-saving bone marrow transplant over the course of 10 years, it was metastatic prostate cancer that led to his passing. His faith in Christ was most important to him, closely followed by family and fellowship with friends.

• Joe Tjaden, after graduating from FDCC, attended Buena Vista University and graduated with a degree in education in January 1969 and a month later married Charlotte Moeller at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Fort Dodge. Charlotte’s father, Willie, and Willie’s brother, Bud, took over one of Fort Dodge’s oldest businesses, Moeller Furnace Co., from their father Walter, its founder, in 1912. Tjaden was hired by Hallmark Cards and assigned in May 1969 to Willmar, Minnesota, where he took orders from Hallmark Card stores in a 70-mile radius. He turned down Hallmark’s offer to transfer and left the company to sell insurance for Connecticut Mutual, worked in sales at West Central Steel and then as an insurance adjuster with Associated Claims until his death. His love of sports never left him. He coached baseball for his son, Scott, and was a downs marker for Willmar High School football games. Tjaden died March 25, 1994, of heart failure at the age of 48.