I think I have fulfilled my pledge for silence, so I will take a few moments to say something for those kind folks who say they miss my rantings.
The media informed us recently that some Maine school was getting a big treat, a chance to walk to school for a day. Wow, what a treat? As a student during the Great Depression the 1920s and ’30s, we always walked to school. That was the only way to get there, and God help you if you were late. In my case, it was a mile to school, and we didn’t seem to think much about it.
The only time I remember being late was a morning I begged my dad to drive the ox team and I was late, a very embarrassing moment I will never forget.
We all tried to make the year without being late or absent; it was some honor to have a gold star after your name on the wall. We didn’t have kindergarten or preschool, no free lunches (we took our own). I don’t remember anyone saying they were hungry.
We went to school from 9 to 3, and most of us went home right after school, as we all had work or chores to do.
Now I am 90, and I look at those days as the good old days, a wonderful time to grow up. We didn’t have any obese kids, either.
Those of us old folks who are left certainly have a great deal to be thankful for.
Ezra SmithWinthrop
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