Kinda got this idea from one of our other members. Talking about what games we used to play. I myself used to like to hear stories from my parents of how it was when they grew up. Sometimes I sit back and laugh. Of course I know they didn't think it was so funny then. But Here's one I laugh at. "When I went to school, I had to walk in knee high snow, There were no buses-we walked every day". Looking back now, I my self actually walked to school also, maybe not in knee high snow, but they didn't start busing at my elem. school until after my 6th grade. I'd like to hear from some of you, of the stories your parents came up with from the 'Good Old Days'
It's funny, my parents got to ride a school bus thru their school years. But for me, from first thru 6th grade the school district didn't have bus service unless you lived outside the city limits so I did walk to school in all sorts of weather. For two years it was 11 blocks, walking north and girls couldn't wear jeans to school so walking into the north wind in a skirt in rain and sometimes snow was far more of a hardship than they had. We didn't have a second car until I was in 9th grade, so thru the middle school years Dad would drop me off at school on his way to work but the afternoons I would have to walk into downtown and sit in front of the dime store until he got off work and could come pick me up. Mind you, stores closed at 5 pm in those days and most days he couldn't come get me until after 6 pm sometimes 7 pm. So I sat on the sidewalk in a deserted downtown area doing homework waiting for him. And in the days before Day Light Saving Time, it meant there were a couple of hours I sat in the dark. Oh, man, I did have it worse than my parents
My momlived in town when she was growing up. She usually spent her summers in Huntsville Alabama as a child. So she probably walked to school. My dad however lived in the country on a farm and went to a one room school house. He had 11 brothers and sisters so they would all pile into the buggy and went to school by horse and buggy. In the winter it was the same. All of the kids of school age went to the same one room school. The highest grade was the 8th. He never went to high school. But in later years he did go to college and got his bachelors degree in engineering. He worked 47 years as a welder, and foundry forman. He was the first in this area to take a welder into the field and repair farm equipment where it broke down. He had mounted a welder, and a car transmission onto a wagon frame and somehow ran it through the power take off on the Ford tractor. This was in the early 1950's. Dad was born in 1906 ad had it really rough on the farm. Always plenty to eat, but no money.
We bicycled to school, it was about 1,5 kilometers one way. In winter we walked. My parents also walked or used the bike, and had a bit farther to go, since they lived at more rural settings. I remember that shops opened at nine and closed at four or five in the afternoon, and were closed from 13.00 on Saturday until 09.00 on Monday. Petrol stations included. They also closed for holidays like Easter, so we didn't have open shops for several days on end. I loved it.
When I was a child after I left primary school and went to secondary school I had to walk approx just over a mile to and from school every day. My parents did not own a car then so I had to endure whatever the elements threw at me. One day I remember it was a real thick fog, you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. I had to hang on to the hedges, gates etc as I went along to make sure I didn't stray off course into the road (not that there was any fast traffic at the time!) I could easily have got lost. I tell you the kids get it very easy nowadays, being ferried back and forth. Now I'm showing my age aren't I
