The other day I was asked the question "What was the first day of school like for you?" My answer was "I have no idea." I can't remember much of my childhood. Never could. But when I saw this cartoon or (as Time Magazine calls this combination of chart and cartoon) "Chartoon," I began to think about how I got to school. Sure, we like to tell our kids and grand kids that it involved quicksand, dragons and broken glass...and in my case, who knows? Because I don't remember.However I do remember getting to high school.
I was thinking it was about three miles from my house. However I just looked it up and it's 1.8 miles. Hard to exaggerate these days with map quest and Google Earth at hand. There were no school buses at that time so the two ways to get to Tech High School were, one, to walk a couple of blocks to the trolley stop. The electric trolley took us to Massachusetts Avenue where we would have to transfer and take another trolley that dropped us off about two blocks from school. This was a lot ot trouble because, at rush hour, trolleys were, many times, full or late. So, mostly I walked the 1.8 miles. I think I should get some "Back in my day" points because this does mean that I walked 3.8 miles back and forth to school every day.
How do I feel about that? I think all the exercise I got when I was young, middle aged and now old, is a big part of what has helped me stay healthy and vertical.
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