Both ways

[gandalf (imported)]

Reading all this brings back memories of walking a mile and a quarter (1.25mi) one way to school in Michigan....up near Mount Pleasant. This was walked every day rain or shine or sleet or snow. I seem to remember some winters, the only jacket I had was a denim one..not heavy at all for Mich winters. AND we had to take our lunch. Used to take homemade soup in a mason jar and put in a pan of water on the top of the potbellied stove which was used to heat the school. Made it do double duty.

Being 71, I didn't have it easy going to school back then.

BTW. When I was in the first grade, living in Lansing, I only attended school for 6 weeks....and still passed. (good graces of the teacher, she though I could do 2nd grade work)

[moi621 (imported)]

I did not have to walk, but I did.

In my day there were school buses. Diesel belching, bouncing,

slow, school buses. By fourth grade I opted to walk. And it was faster because I walked over the hills rather then the roads around them.

Remember those "school buses"? <the horror> <the horror>

Today the kids are, driven to school by their parents.

Not a car pool arrangement or anything like that. One family, one car messing up traffic around the school areas. Some neighborhood demonstrators took over traffic control. When, "The City" and "The District" inspected what they were doing, they instituted it. An airport like drive by drop off / pick up zone.

A major success story considering the ridiculous attitude of "The District" which likes to emphasize it's autonomy over the cities it screws.

[Kortpeel (imported)]

More important than walking to school barefoot in the snow (you liars) was the greater amount of freedom we had in our childhood. I could walk down into the village where I lived, generally meet up with a few other kids and then play in all the open ground we had access to. There were trees to climb, dens to build, a tidal creek that you could swim in at high tide and walk across at low tide. It was all done without any adult supervision and we could take what risks we chose.

Okay so had a few painful learning experiences but nobody ever got seriously hurt, more by luck than safety considerations, but we did learn and it taught us to take responsibility for our own actions. It also gave us the opportunity to learn how to manage our spare time and to engage in projects voluntarily with other kids. We also became a little more streetwise through being able to roam freely.

One result of that childhood experience was, come the time, we were all able to leave home and set up our own place, organise our own money and and generally run our lives effectively. It also enabled us to deal with the problems that life sent our way.

Today there is a culture of ever increasing dependency on the state. People haven’t learnt to fend for themselves. The culture of rugged independence no longer exists. What does that say for our future?

[moi621 (imported)]

More important than walking to school barefoot in the snow (you liars) was the greater amount of freedom we had in our childhood. I could walk down into the village where I lived, generally meet up with a few other kids and then play in all the open ground we had access to. There were trees to climb, dens to build, a tidal creek that you could swim in at high tide and walk across at low tide. It was all done without any adult supervision and we could take what risks we chose.

Okay so had a few painful learning experiences but nobody ever got seriously hurt, more by luck than safety considerations, but we did learn and it taught us to take responsibility for our own actions. It also gave us the opportunity to learn how to manage our spare time and to engage in projects voluntarily with other kids. We also became a little more streetwise through being able to roam freely.

One result of that childhood experience was, come the time, we were all able to leave home and set up our own place, organise our own money and and generally run our lives effectively. It also enabled us to deal with the problems that life sent our way.

Today there is a culture of ever increasing dependency on the state. People haven’t learnt to fend for themselves. The culture of rugged independence no longer exists. What does that say for our future?

There was a story on the news about parents in New York City letting their child ride the Subway by himself. The idea of children, exploring was demonstrated in the movie, "Stand by Me", not Moi:D .

I use to take buses into Hollywood and go to a movie and a Chinese restaurant for won ton soup then buses home. I guess today kids are not allowed to do that. We would also go on all day hikes in the Hollywood Hills sometimes to the HOLLYWOOD sign. Now those paths are covered with tract homes. :-\

The 50's was the best time to be a kid.

[coinflipper_21 (imported)]

There was a story on the news about parents in New York City letting their child ride the Subway by himself. The idea of children, exploring was demonstrated in the movie, "Stand by Me", not Moi:D .

I use to take buses into Hollywood and go to a movie and a Chinese restaurant for won ton soup then buses home. I guess today kids are not allowed to do that. We would also go on all day hikes in the Hollywood Hills sometimes to the HOLLYWOOD sign. Now those paths are covered with tract homes. :-\

The 50's was the best time to be a kid.

You betcha! I used to catch the red car at the intersection of Burbank and Van Nuys and ride it all the way to the "Subway Terminal Building", (417 South Hill Street) and walk a couple of blocks to the main Los Angeles Library to find books that weren't in the local branch. No one thought anything of it. We could ride our bikes over the hill to the beach in Santa Monica. With one speed JC Higgins bikes a true test of strength and stamina. We would ride out to the Van Nuys airport to watch the ANG operations. (Still had P-38s and P-51s. If you never heard a P-38 as a kid you missed something.) Sometimes we would stop for to pick a fresh, juicy orange from a tree at an orange grove along the side of he road while trying not to get a load of #8 bird shot and rock salt in our jeans along with the fruit.

Yes, we had much more freedom then. We built things, did things and had adventures. But, when I heard a teenager complain, last week, that, "Summer Sucks!", it made me wonder. Have we taken away so many opportunities in the name of safety and organization that the kids really have "nothing to do" or was he in his situation because he wasn't taking advantage of what is still available to kids.

...

Today there is a culture of ever increasing dependency on the state. People haven’t learnt to fend for themselves. The culture of rugged independence no longer exists. What does that say for our future?

For the most part, the culture of "rugged independence" is an American cultural myth trotted out whenever someone is opposed to the government doing anything for anyone who is not a big campaign contributor, however the less fettered, self-organized, playtime of our youth gave us a culture of basic social competence that seems sorely lacking in many younger people.

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Ahh, the fond memories of my childhood...

Walking TWENTY miles to school, as always... "uphill both ways" because the school was on the top of a mountain in the morning, but the earth's crust had not really cooled enough to be stable so the mountain would turn into a deep deep pit during our school day...

"Waste deep in snow" except where we had to cross the fields of molten lava, and we were grateful for the lava when we had it!

I never got a bicycle for Chrismas... but my parents gave me permission to go and capture a T-rex and ride it around. Mom made me get rid of the t-rex though when it tried to eat the rest of the family...

When he was much younger, and actually believed me, my poor son actually believed that I had to fight my way to school past a pack of hungry t-rexes... It's fun talking to your kid when they are still young enough to believe you. He is a teenager now, and now HE is telling just as many whoppers as I am, he got me good last "April FOOLS" day by telling me he was not able to go to the scheduled track meet because he was in detention that day... Seriously, I really should have checked the calendar before I got so angry and was dialing the school's principal, my wife stopped me from making a true "April fool" of myself (she was in on the joke too).

In a few more years, it will be my grandchildren hearing wild tales of fighting past the pack of hungry t-rexes and happily skipping over the lava fields to school. Some things never change.

[Riverwind (imported)]

What is really fun is when your son is a young adult and adds to your stories giving them more validity and truth. My sons wife thinks we are both nuts. Wants her new son to be protected from us, FAT CHANCE.

I am getting out the pictures of the lava fields and me riding that T-rex now.

River