I started school in 1940 at the age of five. We lived in Little Rock, AR. The school system did not own any busses. We did not own a car so we walked to and from school in all kinds of weather. I don't remember how far we had to walk but it was at least one mile and maybe closer to two miles. The shortest route took us straight up the hill from our house. The road was not paved at that time and was just dirt and rocks. We called it "rocky road". There was a sidewalk on one side of the street and we used that except in the winter when we had ice storms. Because of the street trees on that side of the road, when they were heavy with ice it was not safe to walk on the sidewalk. Branches would break off the trees under the weight of the ice. We walked up the middle of the road in order not to be under any branches that might break off. Of course, the road was slick from the ice and we had to be careful where we stepped to avoid slipping on the ice. Getting to and from school was a real adventure in winter. There were only a couple of times that we did not have to walk home. Both times we had a real monsoon type of rain...hard and heavy. My mother worked at the grocery store across the street from our house and she got the owner, who did own a car, to pick us up at school and bring us home. I know he did not like doing that and probably took fifty cents from her pay for the gas and inconvenience. He wasn't the best boss in the world but it was a job which brought money into the otherwise "poor house". Robert E Paty, Scottsdale, AZ aka Mad Hatter > From: hsachet@wvi.com > To: memory-lane@rootsweb.com > Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:33:35 -0800 > Subject: Re: [ML] Walking to school > > Walking to school?