uphill both ways

I was talking to my kids about growing up going to government school and how I had to get up early and walk to school every day. I don’t know why I put this off as long as I did but I looked up Clarkdale Arizona on map quest and got the distance from the house I lived in to Clarkdale Elementary School. I remember having to leave about eight in the morning and school beginning I think at quarter to nine. Clarkdale was weatherwise similar to Yucaipa except I remember frozen puddles every winter going to school, seeing my breath and being convinced that Chuckie was wearing lipstick one very cold morning.
It seemed like a very long walk. I would often hook up with friends on the way to school and it felt like miles. Well map quest told me that it was .78 miles. Another woeful tale is shattered there although looking at the route online I can remember I didn’t walk the quickest way.
The school district had a bus that brought in kids from Jerome and Centerville which were genuinely miles away. The bus took me home. I never pondered much why it didn’t drive the town kids to school but I can guess now that the out of town kids would have had to get up earlier.
When I moved to Lahaina, Hawaii in the third grade there was no bus service in either direction for kids who lived close to Kamehameha III school. My parents drove me or we carpooled for a while. I walked home a lot and rode my bike by the sixth grade. I finally rode the bus to and from school in intermediate school and high school. Even then I walked home once in a while.
.78 miles. I would have guessed it at least twice that. I never should have looked it up and gone on thinking that I had a real hike back then.