The Founder

Quote: petroglyph

I live about 6 blocks from a grade school. I am amazed at the lack of kids that ride bikes anymore. We rode them everywhere,

We lived on our bikes in the summer. Went
all kinds of places that our parents didn't
know or care about.

Quote: Evenbob

I took a bus
for 7 years and never saw even one time a
parent waiting. And the bus didn't stop
every 300 ft in those days, some kids had to
walk a half mile or more.

I took the bus to school too. On most days everybody walked home. However, when it was pouring rain it seemed every kid's mom were there waiting at the bus stop to pick them up -- except mine.

If I dared complain I would get a lecture about how she had to walk through snow and ice for 10 miles uphill (both ways) to get to school. Never mind that I don't think snow and ice are that common in Germany.

Quote: Wizard

Never mind that I don't think snow and ice are that common in Germany.

I knew a kid that had a German mom, she hated
us kids. Was always mean and nasty and we
avoided her.

Quote: Wizard

If I dared complain I would get a lecture about how she had to walk through snow and ice for 10 miles uphill (both ways) to get to school..

Is there an equation for that?

Quote: rxwine

Is there an equation for that?

My dad grew up on a farm in WVa and had
to walk 2 miles to school in snow at times.
Before that he had to go up the mountain
on foot and drive the plow horses back to
the barn. He had an hour of chores before
he even went to school, and they had no
electric till 12 years after he joined the Navy.

Quote: rxwine

Is there an equation for that?

The Cliche Equation.

Quote: Evenbob

In the school year now I see parents at every
bus stop in their cars waiting to pick up Jr
so he won't get snatched or have to walk the
grueling 200 yards to his house. I took a bus
for 7 years and never saw even one time a
parent waiting. And the bus didn't stop
every 300 ft in those days, some kids had to
walk a half mile or more.

I mostly took the buss, but the neighbors had kids in high school who often drove us to. From, I mostly took the bus, though my dad time to time picked us up. The bus took so long that by 7th grade or so I begged my mom to let me walk the mile or so home.

In the lower grades they made us take most of our books home so the desks could be "saved" for the 1st graders in class. When you consider what we weighed vs the weight of the books in our backpacks, it was probably relatively more than the French Foreign Legion made recruits carry. Gym day add a gym bag. I don't think I carry as much weight from my car to the courthouse now, and I have no desk there, either.

Quote: AZDuffman

When you consider what we weighed vs the weight of the books in our backpacks, .

Nobody but nobody wore a backpack to school
when I went. Never saw one. Or a book bag.
We just carried what books we needed for
homework. And my dad or mom
would never pick us up for any reason,
and I never saw other parents picking
up their kids. It just wasn't done or needed.
I can't imagine asking my parents to do
such a thing, take me to school? Pick
me up? They would have laughed in my
face.

When I was in grade school they had these rubber straps you could put around books. I seem to remember them being a bear to put on if you had more than a couple books though. Or you carried them loose and one or two would slowly slip out. PItA,

Backpack would have been much better, but I think the only packs made were used in camping or for the military.

Hikers and military were the only ones using
backpacks. If I wore one to school in 1965
I would have been laughed out of there.
When I started seeing kids wear them years
later I thought they looked like idiots. Still
do.