How Did You Get To Grade School?

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Carried my lunch and walked six blocks until 6th grade when we had to transfer to a school further away so my mom had to drive me.
 

We lived way out in the country and the school bus picked us up every morning. We also took our lunch with us. After awhile full lunch rooms were added and I loved the hot lunches. My mother was great but cooking was not her thing and it was heaven to eat new things that we would never see on our table. My dad was a meat and potato or rice guy and we had that most nights along with veggies we had grown ourselves and mother had canned or frozen.
 
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I was five when I started first grade. We kids in the neighborhood walked over a mile to school. We had to cross a major highway, so we had to wait until the "crossing boys" came for us. Then we walked home. In the winter it was dark when I left for school, so my mother gave me a flashlight. My dad took our only car to work, so she couldn't drive me to school. I was a pretty sickly child, caught every childhood disease that wandered by, so I missed a lot of school due to not being well enough to make the trudge.

In the fourth grade, we started being bussed to school. That was heaven in the winter. Then we moved and it was back to walking to school, but that was less than a half mile.
 
I rode my bike. It had a basket on the front for my books, and the ride was about 2 miles rain or shine. My mother did not drive and daddy drove our only car to work.
 
I walked a mile to school, a mile home for lunch again, another mile back to school and then another back home. That was 4 miles a day 5 days a week equal to 20 miles a week of walking to school and I loved it. I’ve stayed active my entire life too. Sometimes I rode my bike.
 
My siblings and I would walk 2 blocks to our elementary school,came home for lunch,walked back.
At times I didn't understand why I had to go back after lunch,I was perfectly happy staying home LOL!
 
We lived on a big hill. Walked almost a mile all downhill, and back uphill for lunch, back downhill, then uphill to home.

Now and then, especially in winter, we stayed for hot lunch ($1.25 per week) or, if was raining my mother packed lunch to eat at school. Often, during winter, the next door neighbor's father drove us in the morning since he owned his business and could make his own hours.

Back then, girls had to wear skirts, but we wore slacks underneath in winter to get to school.
 
I walked almost a half mile to the end of my street to wait for the school bus. Whenever I missed it, I had to walk a mile and a half to school. I still remember the day when everyone standing at the bus stop was searching up in the sky for Russian missiles that we thought were coming during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
 
we had to walk to school which was a a half mile--then when i started the 9th grade it was a mile and a half---it was freezing cold in the winter and we always had a lot of snow in winter
 
Living out in farm country, took a bus everyday up until a month before high school graduation. At that time, April 1968, I bought an old 1959 Chevy Bel Air, got my DL and insurance and drove the car to school. It was really cool seeing the bus finally go straight by our house without stopping to pick me up. I remember passing the bus on my first day of driving to school and waving at everyone on the bus. Some waved back, while a couple of boys didn't. It was obvious those two boys could no longer tease me on the bus and they didn't like that.
 
When I started school we lived in the country and I took the school bus.

We moved to a small village when I started 6th grade and I walked about a mile each way.

Today in the city where I live the kids that live within 1.5 miles of the school still walk.
 
My grade school was a one room affair
Most of eight grades, one room, one teacher, logger in summer
It was between Vernonia and Scappoose, tucked into the Chapman hills
Mom dropped me off on the way to work
About an hour before school started
The teacher lived in the next room
Played with those little red plastic blocks that snapped together, while waiting for the wood stove to warm the schoolroom
Looked forward to it
simple days
gloriously simple days
 
I walked to school, not sure about the distance, probably around a mile. Early on my mother or older siblings walked with me, when I was old enough I walked alone. Always had lunch in a brown paper bag.
 
grades 1-6 walked to and from twice, home for lunch break. There was no caf at the school

7-9 bus although in good weather I would skip the bus and walk home, it was about two miles. Back then no paid attention if you got on the bus or not

10-12 walked about two miles each way; but it was a super nice walk through a city park.
 
My grade school was a one room affair
Most of eight grades, one room, one teacher, logger in summer
It was between Vernonia and Scappoose, tucked into the Chapman hills
Mom dropped me off on the way to work
About an hour before school started
The teacher lived in the next room
Played with those little red plastic blocks that snapped together, while waiting for the wood stove to warm the schoolroom
Looked forward to it
simple days
gloriously simple days

I enjoyed your memory of this, Gary.
 
We lived right in the middle of all the schools, when I was growing up in Denver. it was 3 blocks to grade school, 6 blocks to junior high, and 5 blocks to high school...easy walks to all grades. Then, I got a car in the 11th grade, and spent more time looking for a parking space than it took to drive there.
 
After the 5th grade,my parents sent me to a co-ed boarding school in Deerfield,Mass,500 miles away from home,I was 10 at the time.Then I was sent to girl's boarding school closer to home in Toronto for grades 7&8, then went to live with my aunt &uncle for grades 9&10, which I truly hated.
When my family moved to the burbs, I went to a high school for my junior&senior yr. I didn't have to go far,it was a block away.
I was very jealous my sister &brother never were sent away,it took my yrs to forgive my parents. I was gone from ages 10-16. Sue
 
Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd and 4th grades, I walked. The school was about 300 feet from my house. Second grade, junior high and high school - bused. Here is an aerial view showing how close I lived - where I lived as a kid is circled on the left; the school is circled on the right.
school 4c.jpg

This is how that school building looks from a street view. It was used as Town Hall for years, it's now vacant.
school 4.jpg
 
School bus mostly; we lived on outskirts of town when I was in grade school. I remember the morning rush so we wouldn't miss the bus! Way too far to walk.
 
walked up hill both ways through the snow in august.........or rode a bus.................day one at age 16 drove never to ride a bus again/till I drove one part time.
 


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