When I went to school back in the olden days I was a “walker”; that is to say, my family lived in an area of town where the kids’ weren’t transported to school by those big yellow smelly buses.
The rule back then was that if you lived within two miles of the school you were designated a “walker” and my family always seemed to live just a few feet inside the limit.
Walking to school in the morning burned off calories, saved gas, and expended some of our energy before we settled down for the school day.
With today’s obesity epidemic and gas prices soaring, having the kids walk would be a win all the way around. And maybe there would be fewer problems if everyone had to take a two-mile stroll each morning.
Oh, yeah, and one other plus for me not riding the bus: I was the kid who got motion sick.
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It is obvious these days that the taxpayers are funding buses that aren’t even being used by the kids who are supposed to ride on them. Just look at the half-empty buses and the swarms of cars around the schools.
I enjoyed walking (still do) and I don’t understand today’s aversion to letting the kids walk to school. We developed a real appreciation for the changing seasons and the weather and I think some of my closest friendships were forged on those journeys.
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And am I the only one who notices those empty bike racks at all the shools?
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Hmmmmn - walking. Yup, a NYC girl (Queens), I also walked. Walked the length of a large cemetery (St. John's) to wait for the Dry Harbor Rd bus - picturing it emerging from the horizon still quickens my heart - to make it to Glendale Junior High. Walked the width of that same cemetery (it was wider than it was long) to wait for the Metropolitan Ave bus to "whisk?" me away to Groover Cleveland High School.
Always icy cold - I date back before girls were allowed to wear pants, because pants were indecent, but somehow miniskirts were ok - in fact, I spent many a day in the principle's office because I dared to break that unfair dress code - after all, pants were so much better for those long winter walks! And yes, I was quite thin back then. Of course, my mother never worried about my being abducted on the way to school. Not that she worried about my frostbitten kneecaps either.
I wonder if the crime that so concerns today's parents is really more prevalent now then it was back then.
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