Chit-Chat: What's On Your Mind Today?

[BooksRule]

I never rode the school bus when I was in school (they didn't even have buses in my area during those 'olden' days.  You walked, rode a bike, or a parent dropped you off or picked you up.  Buses came later when my little sister came along), so for those of you who did ride the bus or have children who do/did, have buses always picked up kids so freaking early in the morning?  Maybe the kids next door to me are at the very beginning of the route, but I had to get out early this morning (forgot to pay the water bill so I had to run downtown to put it in the dropbox before city hall opened for the day) and they were getting on the bus at 6:40am!  The sun was barely up.  I admire those kids for catching the bus and for their mom for getting three kids up and ready on time (although I think it was just two today.  One was at the curb screaming to the other two 'the bus is coming! The bus is coming!  I see it!  Hurry!', but I only saw one other one walk to the road to get on board.)  

Edited August 16, 2023 by BooksRule

[PRgal]

21 minutes ago, BooksRule said:

I never rode the school bus when I was in school (they didn't even have buses in my area during those 'olden' days.  You walked, rode a bike, or a parent dropped you off or picked you up.  Buses came later when my little sister came along), so for those of you who did ride the bus or have children who do/did, have buses always picked up kids so freaking early in the morning?  Maybe the kids next door to me are at the very beginning of the route, but I had to get out early this morning (forgot to pay the water bill so I had to run downtown to put it in the dropbox before city hall opened for the day) and they were getting on the bus at 6:40am!  The sun was barely up.  I admire those kids for catching the bus and for their mom for getting three kids up and ready on time (although I think it was just two today.  One was at the curb screaming to the other two 'the bus is coming! The bus is coming!  I see it!  Hurry!', but I only saw one other one walk to the road to get on board.)  

Not even for a field trip?  I was driven to school - my house wasn’t on the bus route and it was too far to walk.  

[BooksRule]

30 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Not even for a field trip?  I was driven to school - my house wasn’t on the bus route and it was too far to walk.

There were buses for field trips and sports events, but not for everyday school to and from trips (maybe some of the rural areas had buses, but not for those of us in town). 

[EtheltoTillie]

14 hours ago, isalicat said:

I come from Ashkenazi Jews on both sides but my parents were both ardent atheists, believing that religion was a crutch for "weak people". They were wonderfully tolerant, however, and we went to the family Seder (mom's side) every year while my mom's parents were still alive. I was never bat mitzvahed though and spent my teen years investigating all the religious belief systems (a life long interest that dovetailed nicely into my academic life which was focused on the history of religion). When I was 16 my mom's mom was dying and asked me to promise that I would marry a Jew - I said "okay" without really thinking much about it, and what do you know, I did wind up marrying another Jewish person (he came from a very observant household, was bar mitzvahed and his cousin is a prominent rabbi in Boston). The irony of all of this, is after much intellectual and spiritual "journeying", I am now a Roman Catholic (spent 20 years as an Episcopalian, been a very involved Catholic for almost 30 years) and my husband practiced Tibetan Buddhism for a while and then finished up as a Hindu before he died. We raised our son mostly as a Catholic but he went to Hindu stuff too and now he practices Hinduism. So you never know! Thanks for letting me share....😺

I need an "interesting" emoji for this!

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, BooksRule said:

There were buses for field trips and sports events, but not for everyday school to and from trips (maybe some of the rural areas had buses, but not for those of us in town). 

We didn't have buses in one area I lived in but when we moved to a nicer school, in a more ritzy area, we did. Funny how that works.

[annzeepark914]

We lived several blocks in from the dividing line so it was a long walk (unless teachers gave us a ride & we *always* said, "Thank you for the ride!"). I did it 4 x a day as I loathed the noise and smells in the cafeteria. This was in elementary and high school. Not fun during winter.

[kristen111]

4 hours ago, PRgal said:

Not even for a field trip?  I was driven to school - my house wasn’t on the bus route and it was too far to walk.  

I loved when in grammar school, we had a bus take us from Queens, NY into NYC to the Museum of National History.  My Mother used to give me money to buy a box of pretty colored rocks in a row.  I was in heaven.  We walked to grammar school, then I took the bus to high school.  I took the train into the City and worked my way up for a Vice President of a major company.  Took stenography, bookkeeping and typing for three years.  In those days, they dictated letters.  My baby Sister got a PhD. In Psychology, as she loved school.   My older Sister got married at 18.  My hubs made sure our three kids graduated good colleges.   We didn’t have the opportunity.

[kristen111]

Quote

4 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I need an "interesting" emoji for this!

 

Nice story.  So sorry about your husband.  Big jump from Judaism to Catholic.   Happy to say I’m buying a new I pad.  This one jumping around.  They say electronics get obsolete.  Second time I’m writing this.

[EtheltoTillie]

19 minutes ago, kristen111 said:

I loved when in grammar school, we had a bus take us from Queens, NY into NYC to the Museum of National History.  My Mother used to give me money to buy a box of pretty colored rocks in a row.  I was in heaven.  We walked to grammar school, then I took the bus to high school.  I took the train into the City and worked my way up for a Vice President of a major company.  Took stenography, bookkeeping and typing for three years.  In those days, they dictated letters.  My baby Sister got a PhD. In Psychology, as she loved school.   My older Sister got married at 18.  My hubs made sure our three kids graduated good colleges.   We didn’t have the opportunity.

We also walked to school in Queens, but they'd take us in a school bus to the museums.  We sang "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall."

[PRgal]

My mom took public transit to school through university.  When she was in Grade 3, my grandparents transferred her from a Cantonese language school to English immersion.  She was the only child in her class who wasn't bilingual yet and had to start from the beginning, learning her letters.  She told me she was pretty lost!  But she learned quickly, memorizing letters on the bus.  My grandmother would give her hints - like the letter S looks like a snake!  She went on to a girls-only Catholic school run by the Maryknoll Sisters and then finished her last two years (Sixth Form in British-speak) at my dad's school (that's where they first met).  Dad's school was only co-ed in Sixth Form and had an excellent STEM program.  Mom commuted when she was an undergrad - I think it was a budget thing that she couldn't live on campus.  She had a scholarship, but it only covered tuition.  My dad had a larger scholarship (and he's also one of four kids.  My mom's one of two).  My grandmother would still ride the bus with her to school (which really embarrassed my mother.  She told her to NEVER acknowledge her and to sit away from her...#becauseteenagers.  Unfortunately my mom's friends recognized my grandmother and would ask Mom why her mother would come with her to school SEVERAL TIMES A WEEK).  My parents didn't date in high school, but did as undergrads.  They both came here for graduate school, got married and several years later, I came along. :) 

ETA:  My parents were in high school back in the 60s.  Came to Canada for graduate school in the early 70s.

Edited August 16, 2023 by PRgal

[shapeshifter]

29 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

they'd take us in a school bus to the museums.  We sang "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall."

I remember singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" too for field trips — I think to the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago.

In the 1930s, my Mom lived in Newark NJ and took public buses to school. I don't know what school it was. 
In a bit of history repeating itself, in the 1990s, my middle daughter took public buses to high school in Sacramento (or walked the 3 miles with heavy books because the school administrators took out the lockers because of drugs).

I took school buses, but often I was on the second trip buses, so had to wait until they came back. Sometimes that meant standing in line for over an hour, but in 5th grade a group of us girls got to go to the room with a piano, which was where I learned "Chopsticks" ("The Celebrated Chop Waltz"). 60 years later, I am FaceBook friends with 3 of those girls. We all do art. 
But I guess the early morning bus riders probably didn't stay late after school:

6 hours ago, BooksRule said:

so for those of you who did ride the bus or have children who do/did, have buses always picked up kids so freaking early in the morning?  Maybe the kids next door to me are at the very beginning of the route, but I had to get out early this morning (forgot to pay the water bill so I had to run downtown to put it in the dropbox before city hall opened for the day) and they were getting on the bus at 6:40am!  The sun was barely up.  I admire those kids for catching the bus and for their mom for getting three kids up and ready on time (although I think it was just two today.  One was at the curb screaming to the other two 'the bus is coming! The bus is coming!  I see it!  Hurry!', but I only saw one other one walk to the road to get on board.)  

Maybe they played "Chopsticks" ("The Celebrated Chop Waltz") in the morning before school officially started instead of after?

Edited August 16, 2023 by shapeshifter

[chitowngirl]

The early morning pickup could be due to driver shortages and drivers need to make 2 runs to the school.

[annzeepark914]

31 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

We also walked to school in Queens, but they'd take us in a school bus to the museums.  We sang "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall."

We took school buses on field trips, and charter buses on trips into Manhattan. I'll never forget one hair-raising trip on that windy mountain road between Bear Mountain Bridge & Peekskill (Rt 9D)  👀.  I looked out the window & only saw the Hudson, wayyyyy below (had a similar exhilarating experience on a tour bus in the fjords of Norway years later). Do kids today sing those funny songs like "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall"? 

[PRgal]

@shapeshifter: Ugh...that heavy bag must have been dreadful!  They never took lockers out of schools here, though I saw a lot of kids with small rolling suitcases in the early 2000s.  I would have been in university by then, so I never had to use those.  As an undergrad, the cool thing to do was to use portfolio style clipboards and mini messenger bags.

[Bastet]

I went to private schools, so kids came from all over; there was no bus route.  Buses were used for field trips, away games for sports teams, etc. 

In elementary school, my mom and my best friend's mom carpooled to alternate taking us.  We went to different junior high and high schools, but mine was close enough to my house to walk.  I, however, cannot abide mornings, and the time I had to get up to be driven (or, later, drive myself) was bad enough; I was not getting up even earlier to walk!  I did walk home (when my mom drove me; obviously not once I started driving myself), though, as long as it wasn't too hot, too smoggy, too cold, or raining.  But if my mom wasn't available on a day I wanted to be picked up, it was no big deal; since I was close, a friend's parent would just drop me off.

I don't remember exactly when school started, just that it was dreadfully early, so I'm not surprised about early pick-up times, especially depending on where someone is along the bus route.

[PRgal]

11 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I went to private schools, so kids came from all over; there was no bus route.  Buses were used for field trips, away games for sports teams, etc. 

In elementary school, my mom and my best friend's mom carpooled to alternate taking us.  We went to different junior high and high schools, but mine was close enough to my house to walk.  I, however, cannot abide mornings, and the time I had to get up to be driven (or, later, drive myself) was bad enough; I was not getting up even earlier to walk!  I did walk home (when my mom drove me; obviously not once I started driving myself), though, as long as it wasn't too hot, too smoggy, too cold, or raining.  But if my mom wasn't available on a day I wanted to be picked up, it was no big deal; since I was close, a friend's parent would just drop me off.

I don't remember exactly when school started, just that it was dreadfully early, so I'm not surprised about early pick-up times, especially depending on where someone is along the bus route.

My private school didn't have buses either (only for field trips.  And longer rides would be on one of those charter things rather than a yellow bus).  Kids were driven or walked.  Older kids might take transit (there's no student parking).  We started at a normal time unless you have sports practice, which could be as early as 7:15.  I felt badly for some of the kids who had 45 minute commutes but super-jealous of boarders who could just roll out of bed.   

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, PRgal said:

I felt badly for some of the kids who had 45 minute commutes

That - or longer, given traffic - was the situation for one of my best friends.  They lived 30 miles away, but her mom taught at the school, so got reduced/free (I don't remember) tuition and hauled her and her brother back and forth with her.  The mom stayed after to grade papers and such, and left just before traffic would get crazy, so the brother hung out at school, but my friend came home with me every day for those couple of hours and then her mom would pick her up on the way home.  She's extended family to this day.  As am I in hers; even though I didn't spend daily time at their house, I was still there a lot (her dad called me "Daughter #2").

[EtheltoTillie]

Oh, that sounds painful, @Bastet.  We went home for lunch during elementary school.  In those days most moms still stayed home (early 60s).  My friends and I lived only a block away, so we'd rush home and watch daytime Jeopardy! with Art Fleming!  It was on at noon. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[Laura Holt]

We went home for lunch as well, and by bus.  So that meant we had roughly half an hour to watch The Flintstones and bolt down our grilled cheese and tomato soup before we had to rush back to the bus stop.  Looking back I have to wonder if the school board ever got around to crunching the numbers to see if it would have been cheaper to have the kids eat at the school as opposed to the cost of the bus.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Laura Holt

[Rose Quartz]

I grew up in a rural community in the 70s and 80s and just about everyone took the bus.  I lived on a farm and was one of the first people on the bus, but I think 7 am was the earliest I'd get picked up - 6:40 would have been brutal.  On the flip side though, my bus was one of the first to leave in the afternoon.  All the outlying buses left first so we wouldn't be stuck behind buses that were dropping kids off in town.  I don't know of anyone who regularly walked to school, although I'm sure some of the people who lived close by did. 

Once we were old enough to drive we were allowed to get a permit to park at the school, but most people still took the bus unless they had after school activities.  Even if you drove you weren't allowed to leave the school grounds for lunch (not that there were many places to go to anyway) so hearing about all the flexibility some of you had is really wild to me.  🙂

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, Rose Quartz said:

I grew up in a rural community in the 70s and 80s and just about everyone took the bus.  I lived on a farm and was one of the first people on the bus, but I think 7 am was the earliest I'd get picked up - 6:40 would have been brutal.  On the flip side though, my bus was one of the first to leave in the afternoon.  All the outlying buses left first so we wouldn't be stuck behind buses that were dropping kids off in town.  I don't know of anyone who regularly walked to school, although I'm sure some of the people who lived close by did. 

Once we were old enough to drive we were allowed to get a permit to park at the school, but most people still took the bus unless they had after school activities.  Even if you drove you weren't allowed to leave the school grounds for lunch (not that there were many places to go to anyway) so hearing about all the flexibility some of you had is really wild to me.  🙂

We had to stay on campus for lunch until Grade 10, when we were allowed to sign ourselves out.  Junior School (elementary) kids had lunches included in their tuition, but once you reached middle (Grade 7), you either packed your lunch or bought from the cafeteria.  Typical school food, I guess (chicken fingers, mac and cheese, fish sticks, bad tacos, pasta, gawd-awful pizza etc...).  I recently found out they've improved the menu a bit and you can even get sushi now.  

[peacheslatour]

24 minutes ago, PRgal said:

We had to stay on campus for lunch until Grade 10, when we were allowed to sign ourselves out.  Junior School (elementary) kids had lunches included in their tuition, but once you reached middle (Grade 7), you either packed your lunch or bought from the cafeteria.  Typical school food, I guess (chicken fingers, mac and cheese, fish sticks, bad tacos, pasta, gawd-awful pizza etc...).  I recently found out they've improved the menu a bit and you can even get sushi now.  

I must be the bad girl in this group, as soon as I was driving to school, I just left at lunch time and met up with some friends at a coffee shop. 

[theredhead77]

16 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I must be the bad girl in this group, as soon as I was driving to school, I just left at lunch time and met up with some friends at a coffee shop. 

I was snuck off campus in the back of my friends minivan. Just laid on the floor and the person watching cars never knew. 

[peacheslatour]

2 minutes ago, theredhead77 said:

I was snuck off campus in the back of my friends minivan. Just laid on the floor and the person watching cars never knew. 

We used to sneak into drive in movies that way.

[Browncoat]

I never rode a bus to school -- it was always carpools or riding with my parents who worked at my high school.  First grade, I walked home, since the school was a couple of blocks away, but then they built a new school, so I rode the bus home until I got high-school aged.  The high school was close enough to our house that there were no buses (if you lived within a certain radius of the school, buses were not an option), so I walked home throughout high school.

[Mondrianyone]

9 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

We used to sneak into drive in movies that way.

So did we.  We went to a drive-in once when I was in college, and the younger sister of one of our friends pleaded to come along. But we didn't want to pay for her, so we made her get in the spare-tire compartment in my mother's car while we went through the box office. And then we couldn't get her out. We all felt very guilty for laughing hysterically for the whole time it took to finally free her.

[peacheslatour]

3 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:

So did we.  We went to a drive-in once when I was in college, and the younger sister of one of our friends pleaded to come along. But we didn't want to pay for her, so we made her get in the spare-tire compartment in my mother's car while we went through the box office. And then we couldn't get her out. We all felt very guilty for laughing hysterically for the whole time it took to finally free her.

I had a buddy that had an old Chevy from the fifties. The back seat came out. You just pulled it forward. We got in to a couple of R rated movies that way.

[annzeepark914]

41 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I must be the bad girl in this group, as soon as I was driving to school, I just left at lunch time and met up with some friends at a coffee shop. 

@peacheslatour...I'm gonna cut you some slack because of your (great) aunt 😊. So, have you gone to Bar Harbor to see where her mansion was (before the big fire in the mid 40's)?  "The Yellow Room" (1945) was an excellent mystery, set in some place very similar to Bar Harbor. 

[peacheslatour]

3 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

@peacheslatour...I'm gonna cut you some slack because of your (great) aunt 😊. So, have you gone to Bar Harbor to see where her mansion was (before the big fire in the mid 40's)?  "The Yellow Room" (1945) was an excellent mystery, set in some place very similar to Bar Harbor. 

No, I've never been there. Thank you for the info, I'll check it out!

Speaking of great stories with word "yellow" in the title, have you ever read The Yellow Wallpaper? Some scary shit.

Edited August 16, 2023 by peacheslatour

[oliviabenson]

19 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

No, I've never been there. Thank you for the info, I'll check it out!

Speaking of great stories with word "yellow" in the title, have you ever read The Yellow Wallpaper? Some scary shit.

I did read it a long time ago in college. Do not remember what it was about!

[annzeepark914]

24 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

No, I've never been there. Thank you for the info, I'll check it out!

Speaking of great stories with word "yellow" in the title, have you ever read The Yellow Wallpaper? Some scary shit.

Scary shit? No way!! I love mystery books but only the Agatha Christie style... not the terror stuff. I belong to a mystery book club and that's been a challenge. There are a few members who enjoy what I call terrifying tales. Then a few who love the modern cozies (the Coffee Shop Mysteries, the Quilt Club Mysteries, etc), & then the rest of us who prefer Agatha's style either from way back or today's version. 

 

[partofme]

11 hours ago, BooksRule said:

for those of you who did ride the bus or have children who do/did, have buses always picked up kids so freaking early in the morning? 

I took a school bus starting in kindergarten.  I don’t remember the exact pick up,times but am pretty sure it was never before 7am.   I remember the long wait for the bus to come in the morning.  I also remember that in junior high the bus was on the late schedule (3:40 dismissal) and high school was on the early schedule (1:50:dismissal), of course everyone stopped taking the bus once they turned sixteen and got their drivers license.  

[PRgal]

Speaking of going off campus, we were allowed to leave if we had a spare period in our last year of high school (had to sign out, of course).  A Starbucks and Second Cup (which is a competitor) opened near campus and we'd go out for coffee in the middle of the day.  Sometimes, we'd do coffee runs for those a grade below us.  One year, one of the Baldwin brothers was doing a movie shoot near campus and one girl even went up to him and invited him to the school play.  Not sure if he came.  Doubt it.

[chitowngirl]

I took public transportation to high school, lovingly referred to as The Green Limousine!

[Suzn]

The bus riding stories reminded me about an early experience.  I was a farm girl and went to a rural one room school (grades 1 - 8)and it was several miles from home so either my parents would take me and pick me up or I would ride the bus taking high school kids to the nearby little town.  The tricky thing was that the driver would have to remember that he had a passenger who needed to be dropped off at the rural school.  Once he forgot and went speeding past;  I leapt up and yelled out.  The kids were hysterical with laughter and I was embarrassed beyond words.

I had another trauma connected to that school - my parents were supposed to pick me up and they weren't there when school was over.  the teacher waited with me and waited and waited and finally took me to her house across the road.  My parents did show up;  they forgot.  That fit with being left at the library on a Saturday night after closing - again forgot.  Little stuff, but seriously traumatized.

[peacheslatour]

3 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Scary shit? No way!! I love mystery books but only the Agatha Christie style... not the terror stuff. I belong to a mystery book club and that's been a challenge. There are a few members who enjoy what I call terrifying tales. Then a few who love the modern cozies (the Coffee Shop Mysteries, the Quilt Club Mysteries, etc), & then the rest of us who prefer Agatha's style either from way back or today's version. 

 

You should totally read The Yellow Wallpaper...if you dare...

[annzeepark914]

22 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

You should totally read The Yellow Wallpaper...if you dare...

👀 Heh heh. I think I'll pass 😁.

[SuprSuprElevated]

I remember these red rubber devil balls. Oh, the sting!

[TattleTeeny]

15 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I must be the bad girl in this group, as soon as I was driving to school, I just left at lunch time and met up with some friends at a coffee shop. 

Haha, my dad bought me a car before I actually had a license so I was bad too; I drove around town and to my friend's house. I wasn't daring enough to go to the mall or to school every day though. After I was legit, I would go to breakfast in the morning and wander in at 2nd period (and sometimes, I would take my dad's credit card and just go shopping in the Village instead). 

Edited August 17, 2023 by TattleTeeny

[GHScorpiosRule]

Here's what I remember...

When living in New York, I walked to kindergarten. I know, because when I went back to visit 11 years ago, I went to see where we used to live, and the school was literally two blocks away.

And yes, I went to kindergarten TWICE, because my Mum entered me a year early when we were in New York, so when we moved to Maryland, I had to go to kindergarten again. The school was too far away from where we lived in the apartment complex. I remember having to take the bus. I have TWO clear memories of riding the bus. One, I remember sitting all the way in the back, and two other kids (boy and a girl) who sat across aisle, laughing with me one day, because the ride was so bumpy, it was like riding a horse when you don't know how--butt kept lifting off the seats while we held on to the edges. Y'all that are kids of the 70s will remember there were no seat belts.

The other (and I think I mentioned this up thread? before) was one day, I was sick, burning with fever, but I wanted to go to school. My Nani (maternal grandmother), great aunt (her sister-in-law who was living with us; Nani, Babuji lived in the apartment below us with my maternal uncle), and my aunt had to hold me back, while I cried and screamed, because the bus was driving away.

Hey, I was FOUR. I don't know how I made it through two years of kindergarten because when I started the first grade, I had to take ESOL!

Anyhoo. We moved the following year to an apartment complex across the street. The elementary school was about a 10 minute walk. We had a crossing guard, and the "rival" school, a private Catholic school, was across the street from my school.

I'm weird. My Mum went to a school where she had to wear a uniform, so of course I wanted to go to St. Camillus, the Catholic school because I thought the uniforms were neat.

And this wasn't a posh area. My elementary years were MISERABLE as I was bullied and beaten up on a regular basis until a teacher finally saw it happening and put a stop to it. I will admit, I was very fortunate in the teachers I had throughout my elementary, middle, high school, and  college years. Maybe that's why I loved school so much. In spite of the bullying and beatings.

When we started middle school and high school, it was the bus for us, as the schools were 5 miles away.

Edited August 17, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Y'all that are kids of the 70s will remember there were no seat belts.

It's still rare to have seat belts on school buses, and I just looked into why.  (I love these forums for giving me reasons to dive into random stuff.)

The federal government doesn't require seat belts on buses, and very few states have laws requiring them.  (And a couple of states have laws requiring them but it's contingent on funding and they haven't provided the funding--I suppose this way they can tout the law as protecting children without actually having to do it?  Well played!)

School buses are designed to provide "compartmentalization" of the passengers, which keeps them from flying around on impact, which obviates the need for seat belts.  It works best for head-on and rear impact collisions, but not as well for side collisions or rollovers, where seat belts might help. 

However, only about six passengers in school buses die each year, making them very very safe even without seat belts.  Interestingly, I didn't see any official reports talking about this, but a similar number of school bus drivers are killed each year, and the ratio of passengers to drivers is what, 50:1?  And presumably the driver is wearing a seat belt, but is also at ground zero in a head-on collision, and the front of the bus is the most frequent impact point--the passengers are compartmentalized farther back on the bus.

Oh, but there won't always be 50 kids on the bus--the numbers go up and down over the course of the route.  Hmm...probably too many moving parts to meaningfully analyze, but it seems bus drivers are in a lot more danger than the kids.

Anyway, in school transportation-related crashes over ten years, a yearly average of 11 people in the bus died (10% of fatalities), while a yearly average of 79 occupants of other vehicles died (70% of fatalities).  (The rest were pedestrians, wheelchairs, cyclists, etc.--non-occupants of vehicles.)  It's a lot safer to be in a bus that crashes than to be in a car that's in a crash with a bus.  Buses be burly.

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813327

The upshot is that kids still get to enjoy bouncing in their seats during a bumpy ride, and aren't in peril because of it. 

[Mondrianyone]

I've read that one of the main reasons for no seat belts on school buses is so the driver doesn't have to waste time unbuckling 25 kids to evacuate them in case of, say, a fire, which makes a lot of sense to me.

I haven't read the link, so maybe this aspect of things is in there.

[Bastet]

19 hours ago, PRgal said:

Speaking of going off campus, we were allowed to leave if we had a spare period in our last year of high school (had to sign out, of course). 

We didn't have to sign out at my school; if you had no class that period, you were not required to be on campus, so no need to let anyone know you weren't.  My final semester of high school, I was able to have two periods off, and I so desperately tried to schedule it so I had no classes first or second period, and could get some damn sleep.  But it only worked out to take first and last off.  By that time, quite a few kids were out of there after the second-to-last (I don't remember how many there were) period, and we'd obnoxiously wave to our friends settling into their last period classes as we headed for our cars.

[SoMuchTV]

On 8/16/2023 at 8:22 AM, BooksRule said:

for those of you who did ride the bus or have children who do/did, have buses always picked up kids so freaking early in the morning?

In our school district, the start times are staggered between about 7:20 and 9:20, so each bus will have a high school run, two elementary runs, and a middle school run. Plus there are magnet high schools that need to bring in kids from all over the city. So for way too many years, I had kids who needed to catch a bus earlier than 6 am. And not in a place that they could walk to in the dark. Needless to say that now that I’m old, I’m enjoying sleeping in. 

[kristen111]

Horray !!!!!!!! Just bought a new I pad.  Finally.  Back in business.
 

 

 

 

[PRgal]

55 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

In our school district, the start times are staggered between about 7:20 and 9:20, so each bus will have a high school run, two elementary runs, and a middle school run. Plus there are magnet high schools that need to bring in kids from all over the city. So for way too many years, I had kids who needed to catch a bus earlier than 6 am. And not in a place that they could walk to in the dark. Needless to say that now that I’m old, I’m enjoying sleeping in. 

9:20??  Wow!  That’s really late!  Save for “sleep-ins” when I was in my final year of high school (when we were allowed to go in late if we didn’t have first period (and sometimes both first and second) classes)), start was no later than 9.  

[kristen111]

20 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Scary shit? No way!! I love mystery books but only the Agatha Christie style... not the terror stuff. I belong to a mystery book club and that's been a challenge. There are a few members who enjoy what I call terrifying tales. Then a few who love the modern cozies (the Coffee Shop Mysteries, the Quilt Club Mysteries, etc), & then the rest of us who prefer Agatha's style either from way back or today's version. 

 

My favorite on my DVD.  Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun.  Watch all the time.  In color.

[ABay]

Two of my friends and I use to skip class and go to Niagara Falls. You didn't even need to show ID at the border then.

[kristen111]

6 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Here's what I remember...

When living in New York, I walked to kindergarten. I know, because when I went back to visit 11 years ago, I went to see where we used to live, and the school was literally two blocks away.

And yes, I went to kindergarten TWICE, because my Mum entered me a year early when we were in New York, so when we moved to Maryland, I had to go to kindergarten again. The school was too far away from where we lived in the apartment complex. I remember having to take the bus. I have TWO clear memories of riding the bus. One, I remember sitting all the way in the back, and two other kids (boy and a girl) who sat across aisle, laughing with me one day, because the ride was so bumpy, it was like riding a horse when you don't know how--butt kept lifting off the seats while we held on to the edges. Y'all that are kids of the 70s will remember there were no seat belts.

The other (and I think I mentioned this up thread? before) was one day, I was sick, burning with fever, but I wanted to go to school. My Nani (maternal grandmother), great aunt (her sister-in-law who was living with us; Nani, Babuji lived in the apartment below us with my maternal uncle), and my aunt had to hold me back, while I cried and screamed, because the bus was driving away.

Hey, I was FOUR. I don't know how I made it through two years of kindergarten because when I started the first grade, I had to take ESOL!

Anyhoo. We moved the following year to an apartment complex across the street. The elementary school was about a 10 minute walk. We had a crossing guard, and the "rival" school, a private Catholic school, was across the street from my school.

I'm weird. My Mum went to a school where she had to wear a uniform, so of course I wanted to go to St. Camillus, the Catholic school because I thought the uniforms were neat.

And this wasn't a posh area. My elementary years were MISERABLE as I was bullied and beaten up on a regular basis until a teacher finally saw it happening and put a stop to it. I will admit, I was very fortunate in the teachers I had throughout my elementary, middle, high school, and  college years. Maybe that's why I loved school so much. In spite of the bullying and beatings.

When we started middle school and high school, it was the bus for us, as the schools were 5 miles away.

Your post brought back memories.  This kid, Richard Spellman, kept punching me on my upper arm EVERY DAY in grammar school on lunch break.  I took it and never told my Mom or reported him.  I heard he liked me.  That was the way he got my attention?  I never squelled on anyone.  What a dope I was.

 

[Bastet]

4 minutes ago, kristen111 said:

I heard he liked me.  That was the way he got my attention?

Sadly, some people still to this day tell little girls that tired, sexist bullshit, that if a boy is picking on her (or worse), it's because he likes her.

Edited August 17, 2023 by Bastet