I don't think too many kids actually walk to school these days, compared to when we were growing up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The days of neighborhood schools seems to have ended a long time ago, in favor of large school campuses.
But there's still buses to contend with. It's always shocking watching footage on Cleveland news stations of thoughtless (and reckless) drivers simply going around stopped school buses illegally, sometimes driving right on the sidewalk! I haven't seen that, that goodness, during my rural commute to Oberlin.
One thing that's kind of interesting for me is that last year, I used to catch up with the bus on Quarry Road at the same time each morning, stopped in front of the same house. I would notice the mother (accompanied by the family cat) sitting on the front porch, swilling coffee in her robe, making sure that her child got safely on the bus. It was all kind of nice, a reassuring vision of small-town America.
Once in a while the mother (or the cat) wasn't there, and I almost felt a little anxious.
Anyway, it's a good time for me to post two full-page school-themed 'drive safely' ads. The first is from August 18, 1954.
