Ben by Daniel Shelton for August 25, 2022

Don’t remember that much snow but it was .7 miles to school uphill going and returning home. Started down hill both ways and the last half was uphill.

Going to school in Berkeley was a breeze – 2 miles downhill. Now getting back home was entirely another thing.

My elementary school was located on a busy street. It was 7-8 miles away. We had to walk to school. Long trek for little children at that time. It would be unheard of this day and age.

Our local movie theater gave away pencil boxes the weekend before school started.

Mom bought us 2 outfits from the Sears catalog.

That was the extent of our Back to school preparations.

My wife enjoys shoveling snow (lucky me) and I have a photo of her clearing the path of three feet of snow on her birthday, May 13th. It was like an extra present for her.

Why that generation (includes my Dad) had to say that is beyond me!

Come on, Ben! You can’t spread it but so thick!

Hey, when I was in 6th grade, we had 3 feet of snow in May. That is also why my mom decided we were moving south.

Chalk, on a small slate, built by the a local service group/lodge. that you had to share with six classmates. You had to wait until the fifth grade before you could play with ‘the ball’, on Thursdays. And bring your own potato for lunch.

I do remember having to wait an hour for the school bus to show up on snowy days. It always seemed to come clanking* down the road at the 55 minute mark.

*snow chains

The snow was fine. It was those late February-early March winds that drove the ice crystals hard into your unprotected face that made waiting for the bus so hard.

When I started school the supplies were pencil and paper. We were told all else was useless until we learned how to use the basic tools (pencil and paper).

You had pencils?! ✏️ ☺

After returning from my first tour of duty, I drove pass the high school I went to, past my Aunt’s house where I lived. I couldn’t believe how far it was. Fortunately it didn’t snow that much, but rained it often.

Winter were much harsher. The cows could walk over the fence

i walked 1.6 miles to school from 5th grade to 8th grade in RI (one way)

My mom salvaged all the usable stuff at the end of the year, We never got new pencils or crayons until the old ones wore down to nubs. Same thing for all my friends. You reused what you had.

They even gave us the pencils!!!

When I was in elementary school, we had a list of stuff to buy but it was mostly to restock the school with stuff, instead of the city, county or state buying it.