Just this evening, I realized that "connections" with certain events have never "clicked" with the same instant in time. Sounds stupid, I know. In September, 1947, my Mother walked me to my first day in Kindergarten. It was almost a mile, I had turned 5 two months before. What had never "clicked" with this until tonight was, my nephew was born in August, 1947, and so was a month old! His Uncle was starting school! My teacher, a Miss Moffett, was very short, and had a large hump on her back, the result of what, I never knew. She had a gentle way with children, though, and I liked her right away. Each of us had brought a small piece of carpet, like a kitchen "slice" today, on which we took our "nap". That first day, I vaguely remember being afraid, as my Mother prepared to leave the school. Half-day classes they were, she magically reappeared at noon, and walked me back home. Not sure, but I think she accompanied me thusly only a day or two more, and then I was on my own! No problem, at all. I followed the same path, noted the same familiar landmarks, certain specific cracks in sidewalks, and followed my instincts. One morning, there was 12 inches of snow overnight! At 7:00 AM, or so, sidewalks were covered, as were streets. Bundled up, and wearing my "galoshes" as she called them, I set off to school. Only a few kids were present in my class. I trudged through the snow, just as I had familiarly walked through it before reaching 5. One morning, it was -20 degrees or so. So what? Bundled up, when I got to school, only 3 of us were in class; the other two had been brought to school by their mothers. My teacher was amazed, I'm sure. No big thing to me, I was by then used to Chicago's winters. Compare the above with today. Child neglect? Whatever other things drive today's political agenda of "protecting children", back then, parents decided when, and to what extent, their kids were prepared for each of life's obstacles. I recall no kids the worse for it; I know it prepared me for growing up, and adulthood. Frank
Yes my childhood experiences were similar to yours Frank, as you say these days it's completely different. There is so much fear around children that they are rarely allowed to walk alone to school, and are often taken by their parents in cars. My first infants school was only 50 yards from my house so not much of a walk, but being only 4 years old my mother took me for a few days, I cried when she left the first day, but was ok after that. My first teacher Miss Yates, was gentle and kindly, though I do recall another teacher Miss Baylis who was a tyrant and didn't spare the rod, and would often throw wooden blackboard cleaners at inattentive children, that would certainly not be allowed today We had small camp beds to sleep on, there were small cards on each bed depicting a childhood character, mine was Rupert Bear.
Very nice! Surprising to me that details of memories from 70 years agonare sharp nand distinct, while I cannot remember with certainty as I get into the car, whether I locked the door leaving the house. My friend from high school, Charlie, is even worse; his lady friend revealed he has been known to go back to check the door, sometimes twice!
Yes, I walked to school with my brother when I was 6, later with friends. When I was around 9, I remember hearing that there was some man in the woods that we used as a shortcut, but that didn't stop us.
I too walked to school when I was a child. I remember having buses when I was in high school, until then I walked to and from school. One good thing I could stop at my favorite spot called Scotty's Drive Inn now long gone, who had greasy french fries that I loved, so I bought it most of the times on the way home. Even days of rain we walked to and from school. These days watching the news seeing Sandy Hook Elementary school attacked things are very different these days! We couldn't bring guns or knives to school nor was it such a time of much terrorism, unlike today. When children get gunned down in school it's horrible for they are only children.
Definitely there's a change from the olden times as against with the modern times. However, I cannot say that the change is positive or negative. My mother always brought me to school starting from grade school until high school which is near our home. I only learned to be independent when I entered the university in Manila. School children now have the convenience of the school service - mostly vans but there are still the big buses. They say that they have more independence since the school service attendant is not as strict as their parents. In the streets, however, only the thugs can be found loitering or the so called standby who spend their day in front of the small stores. But now, I find so many minors who appear to be homeless with their unkempt appearance. They roam the streets with a transparent plastic bag presumably containing solvent or glue that they sniff while they walk. When the department of social welfare and development was asked about that, they reason out that minors cannot be jailed and the social welfare office cannot accommodate all those wayward children so they are detained for a day and released on the next day. Making matters worse are the cctv footage in news reports that always show children committing crimes from burglary to violence. There was this riot where a minor knifed another minor. So where is the world going? Is the youth really the hope of the land?
I lived a mile and a half from school when I was in elementary school, which went through the eighth grade in our school. I usually took the bus to school but walked home, except when it was too cold. Many winter days, we still walked, and in nice weather, there was a short cut through the woods. In my experience, short cuts always take longer.
I always walked to school. Kindergarten was only 2 1/2 blocks from our house. It was a public school. There was an incident with the teacher that made my dad mad. Then, my parents sent me to a Catholic school, thinking i would fare better with the nuns. Silly parents. That school was about a mile away and uphill most of the way. I went there except for my last two years of high school. A new Catholic high school was built on the west edge of town. It was near 2 miles away. A friend and one of my cousins lived in a neighborhood called 'Germantown', which was 2 blocks from my house and on the way. We walked together. Sometimes, if it was raining or very cold, someone would stop and pick us up. We walked home as well. There was bus service, but we would have had to walk to the bus stop, wait out in the weather, then change buses at some point on the route. Walking seemed less troublesome.
The days I truly still remember are those during my high school years on a farm. Getting up at 5:30 or 6AM to help my dad feed/water hogs. Not so bad during the summer months, but those winter mornings, I had to take two buckets of hot water down to our hogs. The hog troughs were full of ice, so had to break that up and pour the hot in. And then, get ears of corn from the crib for them. Throw some chicken feed into the chickens. After that, ate some breakfast and waited for the bus to arrive. Those definitely weren't "the good old days", but I survived. But, still even today, ranchers and farmers have to feed and water their stock in snow and freezing cold weather. Just part of the lifestyle.
Elementary school was next to our house until the 4th grade when we moved about 2 miles away. I used to walk all the time. There were no school buses then. After we moved used to hitch rides on bumpers in the winter. I stopped that one day because I hitched onto a taxi and when I looked up I saw my teacher was in the taxi so I let go. I went to Boston Latin for junior high so had to take public transport for those years. Walked to high school all the time. Still no school busses. High school was about 3-4 miles from home when I was sophomore. Junior and senior years, after moving again, school was 2-3 miles from home.
Elementary school was only a mile from my house, but we lived on a major state highway with lots of traffic, maximum speed limit allowed at the time, narrow gravel shoulders. No kids I know of walked on that road, or rode bicycles on it, even older kids. High school was about 4 miles away. In winter (NE Ohio) sometimes snow would have made it really difficult to walk, because the snow plows would pile the snow on the shoulders, and you had to climb over a hill of snow just to get to the bus stop, or get out of your driveway. I think it would have been fun to walk to school, but there were a lot of fun things associated with bus rides too. The thing I would hate most is having your parents drive you to school. I see long lines of parents' cars, snaking out onto the main road, waiting to pick up kids every afternoon at the schools here, both private and public.
I had to feed the horses and the chickens, and sometimes walk the quarter of a mile through the pasture to break a hole in the ice for the horses since they drank from the river. Sometimes, we had to help round up the horses, as they were inclined to escape. However, I was one of five boys so it wasn't left for me to do that every morning.