reminiscing

I got to thinking about all the walking I did when I was young. I can't imagine letting my own kids walk around town like that but it was a different time.

All the little kids in our neighborhood would walk to school together. Alec and I would start at our house and along the way we'd be joined by other kids. We walked down Jenner and at each corner that intersected it we'd meet up with whoever lived on that street and we'd all make our way down the .71 of a mile (Love mapquest) to our Elementary school. It was a lot of fun. I remember loving the way the air smelled in the early morning and being excited about a new day. Then at the end of the day we'd head back. Sometimes stopping to sit and chat on each corner before saying good-bye to that friend. It must have taken us a while, but our parents must not have worried because I don't remember it ever being an issue.



In High School I rode the bus to school my Freshman and Sophomore year. My friend Maybelle Begay, who was part of the Lamanite Exchange Program, didn't' like to ride it home so we often walked. That was 2.2 miles. We'd walk down main street and look at the shops, then through the desert until we hit our homes. We'd talk along the way and went by quickly.



My BFF, Lana, and I walked every where all the time. We walked to our piano lessons, a little over a mile away down Ave I, a very busy street. She'd have her lesson and I'd watch Debbie's little kids in the bedroom. Then we'd switch. She became a good pianist, I became a good baby-sitter. Then we'd walk home and we'd always stop at Winchells for a donut to fortify us for the trek home.
We'd walk to the library (a mile and a half) every week and spend an hour in the stacks picking out books. We had a method. We'd walk up and down each row and pick out titles that sounded interesting. Then we'd take it to our favorite table and look through them making 3 stacks~ yes, you can look at it, what was I thinking. After we were done we'd switch middle stacks in case the other wanted to take something from there, then we'd reshelve (in the proper place) all the rejected books of the week, check out our armful and walk home. Often we'd go to one of our homes lay on the bed and start reading together. On the way home we'd talk about the books and wonder which we would like, or which we would read first (yes...we were BIG nerds). Sometimes we'd switch stacks mid week, depending on how the reading was going.

I walked to the hospital to be a candy striper (although my mom or dad picked me up after)

We walked to the movies, to Nauglass to buy Ice Cream Sundaes, to the stable where Lana kept her horse and I was always trying to borrow one.

One time we decided to walk to the Palmdale Library (10.2 miles away). We made it but Lana's dad had to come drive us home :)

And sometimes we'd walk out to Apollo Park to go fishing with her brother Adam. That was a long walk too. (4.3 miles)

We'd walk around the desert looking for stuff, or to a park or where ever. Later when Lana got her horse we'd ride ( I was really lucky because even though I didn't have a horse our friend Carol Markham did~ and she didn't care for that stubborn pony at all and was THRILLED that I would "exercise Velvet" for her and I was THRILLED to do it so it was a perfect match...BTW, Carol later served a mission to Ireland, which I think is very cool) ..which was so much more fun but didn't work at all for the library or piano. It was fun to ride through the drive through and get our ice cream though :)

I am kind of sad my kids can't have that kind of freedom, it was great fun and I'm sure great for my mom since we were out of the house.

I do remember complaining about our walk to the elementary school until one summer, when I was going into 6th grade our whole family took a trip to France for the summer to meet the relatives and so dad could do genealogy. (different post). I remember going to see the house he grew up in. We drove into the middle of no where~ a very beautiful and lush no where but still, got out of the car and crossed a stream and hiked up a very long windy dirt path to a "house". It was small and dark and had a dirt floor and dad said "oh look, they've made some improvements since I lived here...the improvement was a light bulb hanging down on some electrical wiring. He was excited to see his old home and showed us where he slept (with the rats) and where he played. We had a fabulous time looking around and on the long trek back I asked him how he got to school, he said by walking down this path and across the stream and over to the village. Alec and I were very impressed and I resolved to never complain about having to walk anywhere again....and I didn't.