Walking to school with my brother Luke was always a fun part of the day. The school was pretty much a straight shot, a mile up one of the busy main roads in town. We’d walk no matter what the weather was like because our family only had one car and dad took it to work. Grandma pointed out a house to us that was white with bright yellow trim and told us if we ever needed help on our walk we could stop at that house for help because her friends lived there. Thankfully we never had to do that, but it was comforting to know.
Seeing as we lived in Wisconsin, most of our walking was done in the cold. We’d layer up, then put on our coats, scarves, hats, gloves, snow pants, slide bread bags over our thick socks then shove our feet into our boots. I can remember having so many layers that at times my arms would fall asleep on the walk to school because my backpack had gotten too tight over all the clothes.
The walks home from school were always much more leisurely. We weren’t on a time crunch and could play games or collect things we’d find on the sidewalk. We’d come home with handfuls of dandelions in the spring, pockets full of interesting rocks, coins we’d find, sometimes insects we’d spot in people’s yards, bouquets of the prettiest colored leaves in the fall, but always bursting with pride as we’d walk through the door to show mom what we found.
In the winter we wouldn’t walk on the sidewalks, but instead walk on top of the huge snow piles the plow had left on the side of the road. We’d play King of the Mountain over and over all the way home. More than once one of us would lose our boot when our foot went deep into the snow pile and only our foot pulled out leaving the boot firmly and deeply in the snow. We’d stop and dig it out together then carry on home.
On our route, we’d pass The Spot, a local drive-in burger joint. One day we saw a friend from school in the parking lot of The Spot drinking something. We asked where they got money for a drink, and they told us water was free. So, then we began stopping for free cups of water on our way home. We’d sit at the little two-seater cement table and chairs and feel like adults because we were alone at a restaurant.
After a time, our cousins Shane and Hannah would walk home from school with us because our mom would watch them until their parents got out of work. The boys would run ahead while Hannah and I would talk and talk while we lazily walked behind them.
We’d pass a house with a detached garage, and the high school boy who lived there would often make spooky sounds from the garage as we walked pass. It scared us enough that we quit walking past on that side of the road, we’d cross the street to pass it on the other side.
One time on our walk home, a car stopped and told us to get in. It was our Grandpa Freeborn, but he didn’t live in town, and we didn’t recognize him right away. We hesitated and asked him questions until we realized it really was him. He retold the story later at dinner and we all had a big laugh.
When it was time for my youngest brother John to start walking with us, a school that had been closed some years earlier reopened and we started going to that school. It was much closer, only two blocks over and two blocks up. Plus, we got to pass the corner store, so we’d spend our walks looking for coins on the sidewalk and along the curb of the road. We got to stop most days to buy Little Debbie’s or Chick-O-Sticks for a quarter or Jolly Rancher Fire Sticks for a dime.
Once I was done with elementary school, I had to walk to the Junior High by myself. But it was only for a year and then Luke was there walking with me all over again. Once we got to High School, it was too far to walk all the way to school. But we’d walk a few blocks to the stop for the city bus and then ride the bus the rest of the way. Eventually a friend got his license he’d pick us up and drop us off.
Those days walking to and from school seemed to drag on forever back then, but now they seem like such short, precious days
Here I am my first day of Kindergarten in the dress my mom made me before walking to school for the first time.
