The forgotten thrill of walking to school

AAA Safety Patrols were always the most trusted 5th graders in the entire school.

It was as if I'd discovered my husband was a former astronaut or something. How could he have waited all these years to tell me he was a safety patrol in elementary school? I'm very impressed, because I always had high respect for the safety patrols in their plastic orange cross-shoulder harnesses with the silver AAA badge pinned neatly to their chests. They were very cool and held all the power in the school.

Even though it was in the era of, "I am woman hear me roar," we didn't question that the overwhelming majority of the patrols were boys, because I guess girls weren't trustworthy enough to raise and lower the American flag or pick up trash on the playground. Sometimes, the patrols got to wear a plastic helmet to protect them from . . . I don't know, falling pine cones?  And the patrols at my school held big flags to stop traffic on an actual highway to allow the other children to cross as they walked home . . . by themselves. No adult was near the action.

Nowadays, the student patrols have mostly been replaced by paid adults who even receive tenure after a few years. I'm surprised the childhood patrols of long ago haven't sued the school districts for back-pay from all their years of service. The pint-sized patrols even braved rain storms to perform their sworn duties, and none of their parents complained. It was an honor to be such a trusted 5thgrader.

My husband said his main job was to help the younger students with their bicycles - which of course, didn't require a lock, because who in their right mind would steal a child's bike, from a Catholic school, no less?

Carpool lines are the new pain-in-the-neck for busy parents because no one wants their little kindergartener to ride the bus with the scary teenagers. As the mother of scary teenagers, I say, "wise move," but the aggravation and pollution of 120 cars idling in the heat, doesn't do anything to raise the quality of life in our communities either. While waiting in the boring line, I always thought we should park our cars on the side of the road and have a cool, covered, gathering spot for snacks while we waited. Socializing with a few cookies seems much more productive to me than solo-car-dancing to ABBA behind our tinted windows. (Oh, you know you do it too).

Walking to school starts with having schools built in reasonable locations. Then, it requires safe neighborhoods and traffic-friendly roads. At the very end of the plan, walking to school needs parents who are willing to say, "go!" Take off and get yourself to school. Feelings of independence, reliability and maturity abound when kids are given a bit of freedom.

Our family lived in an area where our son could only walk to school one year. He loved walking -- or more accurately for him, "meandering" alone even when it was cold or hot outside. Like Jeffy from Family Circus, he would sometimes detour by my husband's office or the gas station for a little treat on the way home and felt very grown up that he had a little bit of control in his  life. After that free-range year, the county relocated the middle school to the edge of town, so it was back to the car-pool line and bus for us.

Some school districts still participate in the AAA Safety Patrol program, which makes me happy because it encourages independence in our children. It's true there are many factors that go into the making of a successful man, but I have a feeling that the skills my husband learned as a safety patrol added to the overall man he is today. I can just imagine him organizing all those bikes (probably alphabetically according to brand), replacing slipped chains and walking injured children to the school nurse. It was great training for when he grew up to marry someone who needs her hand held when she crosses the street. Can you blame me?

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