My Life - Chapter 27 - Going to School

Starting in kindergarten (there wasn't pre-K then) and through second grade, mom drove me to school in the morning and picked me up at the end of the day.  We moved closer to school after second grade which meant I could walk.

I attended St. Paul's in Janesville, kindergarten
through 9th grade.  11/9/2013 dwm photo

The new home was so close to school that before my parents sold it they gave most of the backyard to St. Paul's to double the grassy area of the playground.

Most mornings I walked to school, walked home for lunch, back to school for recess, then home.

It was a five minute walk to the corner, a left turn for another block, then left past the church to the parking lot/playground where we had recess.

Between our backyard and school was a six foot chain-link fence topped with twisted sharp ends of two wires.

The back of my old house.  The fence
now separates that yard from the
school's additional playground space.
11/9/2013 dwm photo

   Before and after-school I frequently took a short-cut.  There were two ways to go, over or under the fence.

   The first few years while in third, fourth, and fifth grade I went under.  The previous homeowners had a dog who created a passage big enough to slide feet-first while keeping my face away from the twisted sharp wires on the bottom of the fence.

   On my way home I went head-first.  I got dirty but was home in no time.

   Eventually I was too big to go under, so I'd go to the far end of the yard.  That's where the fence corner had extra reinforcements which made it easier to climb and gain the very important clearance to avoid possibly painful contact.

   I don't recall getting in trouble for the short-cuts.  I think as long as I didn't go over or under the fence during the school day and home was on the other side of the fence, no one, including my mom was concerned about I was climbing the fence.

The tree stands in what was the
northeast corner of our yard. Now
it marks the corner of school
property.  11/9/13 (dwm)

When I moved on to high school there were no fences to climb just a longer walk.

It took 15 minutes to walk three-quarters of a mile to J.A. Craig High School.  Usually I walked with Andy, but sometimes one of his two sisters or older brother joined us.  

The walk was uneventful until we crossed Randall Avenue, the main street in front of the school.  The intersection of East Holmes and Randall was busy from both directions going north and south while East Holmes traffic was backed up with parents or kids driving to school.

If you stood at the corner and waited for someone to wave you across, you would be waiting a long time.  Our technique, like the other kids who lived close enough to walk, was to keep walking expecting the cars to stop.

They stopped.  We just had to move quick enough to keep the streams of traffic moving at their own pace.

However, in the interest of honoring the age-old creed of parental stories throughout history, I should say that I did walk up-hill going both directions to school!