Society & Culture Getting yourself to school as a kid

[Highlander35]

Walked to school with a parent in equiv of Prep.

Walked to school by myself Grade 1 though 8.

Moved to aus and took the bus to school between years 8 & 9.

Moved house and walked to school years 10-12.

Have been driven to school about a dozen times since moving to aus, 5 on first days, and the rest on camp days, when I had a buttload of shit.

 

[Roobs321]

from Year 2 to Year 6, primary school was only about 500 metres away (ie. within hearing range during the playground lunchtime).
Before that I was a few kms away, so I caught the bus from when I was 6, bus-stop was about 200m up the road, outside the aboriginal community.

After I finished primary school, we moved even closer to the school, so we were only 4-5 houses away for my younger brothers. Moved again. My brothers had to walk about 2-3km to and from school.
Our town didnt have a high school, so I had to take the 30min bus trip into town for 6 years. Wasnt a big fan of the bus in high school, but the bus stop was always in sight, so it wasnt too bad. And eventually when friends started getting their P's, then you can get a lift home.

Many memories of walking around the corner of my house, and seeing the bus pulling into the bus stop, yelling 'oh ****', and sprinting for it
Mum always drove into town for work 5 minutes later, so atleast there was a 2nd option.

 

[The_Reaper]

Went to primary school until the end of year 5 with my older sibling and walked with her.
Only exceptions where when I had cricket training after school and got picked up then.

In year 6 and 7 I walked on my own.

High school walked on my own.

My old man works near my university so I often catch a lift.

 

[Benno_900]

I bet you were still late.

Haha, had this one guy in my year level who lived only a 5 minute walk away.

Would still arrive 10 mins late every single day.

 

[The_Reaper]

Haha, had this one guy in my year level who lived only a 5 minute walk away.

Would still arrive 10 mins late every single day.

There was a kid on my high school who lived within 100 metres of the school.
He turned up later every day and even turned up late for exams. As in turning up to exams 30 minutes after the exam had started.

 

[hoianbulldog]

Back in the 30's my mother would travel about 10 kms to school with her 7 siblings in a buggy pulled by a half blind horse that had a tendancy to spook easily. It was country NSW in a time I doubt many of us could comprehend. She always speaks of those times with fond memories.

Probably explains why she wasn't too fussed about me walking to school.

 

[kBuck]

Walked 150 m from year 1-9. Cycled/Walked 2 kms from year 10-12.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I started primary school in 1973 when I was 4 1/2 years old. In those days, unless you were going private or religious then you had to go to the school you were zoned to.

My school was about 1.5kms away, my very first day mum walked me to school to show me how to get there then I was on my own after that including walking home that first day.

From prep to year 11, all 12 years of it, I can count on one hand the amount of times mum either drove me to or from school. (dad worked rotating shifts). The high school was fractionally further away than the primary school was.

 

[FootyJunkie]

Combination of school bus, getting driven, and walking to school. School bus for my very first school in Perth. Walking to school sometimes turned a bit ugly as I'd often leave home too late and rock up to my home room anywhere from 5-15 min late which ticked off the my teacher. meh

 

[tandino]

In primary school in the mid 90's, I was driven until we moved close enough to the school when I was in Grade 5 to walk.

I caught the bus pretty much throughout high school, except for 18 months in Year 8-9-ish when we lived down the road from the school, and in the mornings for half of Year 12 when I had a mate who lived down the road who had his license.

 

[The Big Sticks]

I have been thinking about this a bit lately. Whenever I go for a walk down to the shops when school finishes, there are hardly any kids around but there are plenty of cars. It's quite sad.

I walked 5 minutes to kinder/school until grade 6.
Rode 4kms to high school from year 7 until year 10.
Walked or rode (depending on how late I was) 2kms for year 11 and 12.
I even caught two buses at 6 in the morning to TAFE until I got my licence.

I can tell you now that my kids will be walking/riding to school if they are close enough.

 

[Crimson Azure]

Walked about 2k each way to school, wouldn't take mt bike as they all got flogged.

At one point however I used to catch a bus for 30 min to the train station then take the train from Glen Waverly to Darling station then walk about 1k. Took me forever to get to school!

 

[Copernicus]

I would either ride my bike, which I did for the best part of two to three years, catch the bus (occasionally, didn't enjoy that when it was packed in like sardines) or my mum would take us to a drop off spot about twenty minutes walk during high school. Why she did that, I am not sure. Either way, I was never picked up directly from high school - which was good with me, because in the afternoon it meant I could walk with my mates before we split off.

This was in the mid to late 90s.

I really can't remember about my younger days (kinder and up), but I do remember from Grade 4 -6 in primary school I was dropped off at school. A combination of it being an hour walk, and no public transport service, as well as having to navigate a busy road during peak hour.

 

[freddy mercury]

Primary school - It was about a 3min walk to school. Used to walk through my high school which was 30 second walk from home. Can see my high school from my bedroom window right now.

And it's now being torn down later this year and I have so many memories from the place

Even walk around there at night and reminisce..

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

I can remember getting dropped off after breaking my ankle in grade 3, so I was walking to school before then - about a 15-20 minute walk.

High school (gr.7) was closer, but then the next year we moved to the other side of town. Had to catch one bus (7:05) into town, another (7:29) accross town and a third (8:02) back out, then a 2 minute walk. If any of the buses ran late (or often the middle one was early) I would end up late to school. Eventually worked out that I could run to school in about 35 minutes and walk it in less than an hour, so regularly did that instead. After school I worked until nighttime when I didn't have sport and would get picked up from there.

..........

My son has a 35 minute walk to school, we've done it a few times allready (he's in Prep this year) - but between a heavy bag and two monstrous hills, I tend to drop him at the door (or as close as we can park) - even if it sometimes means 4-5 blockies and 30 minutes of 'driving' in gridlock.

Once he's safe on the bike/scooter, we'll probably start riding to school, and eventually I'll let him go by himself (no doubt following in the car the first few times)...

The high school is just 5 minutes down the road so he'll walk there everyday.

 

[Rhodesy_Blues]

Used to catch the train throughout my last 2 years of high school. 10 minute walk to the station and then a 5 minute ride. Nobody else every caught the train in my direction, so it was pure bliss just sitting in silence for 5 minutes watching the world go by.

Only problem was that the trains would either get me to school at 7:35 or 8:35. Despite explaining the situation to my homegroup teacher about 20 times I still got in shit for arriving late.

There was also one morning when I missed an early morning bio lesson and was going to get a detention, until my teacher found out that I'd in fact been hit by a car and was holding up traffic for about 30 minutes on a main road

 

[fairdinkum]

My son has a 35 minute walk to school, we've done it a few times allready (he's in Prep this year) - but between a heavy bag and two monstrous hills, I tend to drop him at the door (or as close as we can park) - even if it sometimes means 4-5 blockies and 30 minutes of 'driving' in gridlock.

Why is his bag so heavy?

 

[The_Reaper]

Why is his bag so heavy?

Possibly because he is 4?

 

[Righteo]

Haha, had this one guy in my year level who lived only a 5 minute walk away.

Would still arrive 10 mins late every single day.

In a similar vein there used to be this girl who lived directly across the road from our primary school who was regularly 30 minutes late. She changed schools after a while but it made her the object of ridicule during her stint there. (unfortunately she was an African immigrant so she was an easy target for us pre-pubescant shits).

Like seemingly everyone here my Primary school was less than a K from where I lived so I'd always walk (the satisfaction I got on my sickies hearing the siren ring to start the day whilst lying in bed watching CheeseTV was immense).

Caught the bus to and from HS all my 5 years there, which was pretty fun really if you have mates who caught the same route/service as you but not so fun when the "rival" highschool kids who'd also catch that service would outnumber us convincingly, public school kids *shudder*

Took me a few years after I finished HS to get my license, and I grew to despise catching the bus home from uni when it was filled with obnoxious little shits (although I freely admit I was probably as loud and obnoxious myself when I caught the bus with my mates for school). Strength in numbers and all that.

All in all I didn't have it so bad at all, knew a few mates who caught the bus in from places like Rocko and even Kalamunda, and I went to school in Freo (likely outing myself here ).

That seemed unimaginable to me at the time, they must have had to get up at like, 6 o'clock or something

For my fellow BF'ers who "bussed it", how many of you were backseat bandits?

 

[Natho]

Pretty much got driven everyday. Only finished school in 09.

 

[Plugger35]

For my fellow BF'ers who "bussed it", how many of you were backseat bandits?

I was a backseat bandit towards the end of high school. The coolest kids always sat at the back and nerds at the front but it was also a seniority thing, the year 11s and year 12s got first dibs on the back seats. When you were in year 8 or year 9 you would get bashed by the older guys if you took the back seats so you just had to sit as far back as you could and then move further back as you got older.

At the high school I went to we had 5 designated buses that left from the front of the school and they were all monitored by the teachers so you couldn't play up as much and was where most of the good kids went. Then there was just a regular public bus that you could catch around the corner which wasn't monitored by teachers and was where most of the bad boys went. That bus was mental with regular fights and bashings with people throwing other peoples bags out the windows and chucking other stuff around. There was a number of times where the bus drivers stopped the bus and threatened to throw us all off or drive us to the nearest police station if we didn't settle down and behave.

 

[Righteo]

I was a backseat bandit towards the end of high school. The coolest kids always sat at the back and nerds at the front but it was also a seniority thing, the year 11s and year 12s got first dibs on the back seats. When you were in year 8 or year 9 you would get bashed by the older guys if you took the back seats so you just had to sit as far back as you could and then move further back as you got older.

At the high school I went to we had 5 designated buses that left from the front of the school and they were all monitored by the teachers so you couldn't play up as much and was where most of the good kids went. Then there was just a regular public bus that you could catch around the corner which wasn't monitored by teachers and was where most of the bad boys went. That bus was mental with regular fights and bashings with people throwing other peoples bags out the windows and chucking other stuff around. There was a number of times where the bus drivers stopped the bus and threatened to throw us all off or drive us to the nearest police station if we didn't settle down and behave.

First paragraph is spot on, I can relate to all of your post. I remember the teachers tried to take measures and wouldn't allow Yr 11's and 12's onto the bus (also had a stop directly out the front of school) until the younger kids had got on first.

Naturally this displeased the seniors who immediately took vengeance on the younguns as soon as the bus moved on. I'd hate to be a bus driver though getting assigned to a special school service, would have zero patience putting up with all that shit.

Your last para cracks me up, I reckon this happened just about every day, I remember a bus driver once stopping, getting out of the cabin, opening the doors, grabbing a footy from a particularly troublesome little shit and throwing it out the door. It was pretty effective as the little bugger had no choice but to immediately vacate. Probably kick up a bit of a stink these days though, maybe even make it to ACA or TT.

"Bus Drivers Gone BEZERK! Traumatised youth speaks out on vicious bus assault".

 

[boncer34]

Walked, bussed or rode for probably 95% of my school years. Sister used to complain constantly about me getting a lift once every other month banging on about how she was ALWAYS made to catch the bus.

Lazy cow got a lift every day.

 

[jethro11]

Lived a 15-20 minute walk to my school (K-12) in the 90's and early 00's

Pretty much the whole way walked along with my siblings and a few mates who live on my street.

Stopping by the milk bar was a nightly institution (mum always used to give us a couple of bucks to keep us out of her hair for an hour or so). There was a little park across the road from the milk bar where we'd always have a kick whilst gorging on mixed lollies etc.

Sad to think a lot of kids don't do those sorts of things these. The corner stores used to backed back then, now kids are sitting around playing video games.

 

[dales.girl38]

For my first few years of primary school we lived about a ten minute walk from my school. I think there was a mixture of walking and getting dropped off, depending on my age (it was never the best neighbourhood to be walking around in, we had heaps of lock-downs due to break ins at the local shops and prowlers). For the later years I lived probably a 30 minute walk away, I either rode my bike, walked the odd time or got dropped off.

In high school I was a 45 minute bus trip away, so I'd quite often walk home from the bus stop (if my bag didn't weigh a tonne), but I never walked there, since it would have meant leaving home at about 7am...just wasn't going to happen.