When I Was A Kid I Walked Uphill, Both Ways, IN The Snow!

And that statement is actually true.

In grade school I lived in a small town in Oregon. The school was perched overlooking a river at the top of a particularly steep hill (hills of this size in Missouri are referred to as "mountains" - in case you're from the West Coast and thought of visiting the Ozark "Mountains". Scenic yes, mountainous no).

I lived at the top of another rather steep hill, on an unpaved road nonetheless (and I have the scars on my knees from trying to SKIP down the unpaved road and I'm pretty sure I have rocks from that unpaved road permanently lodged under my skin).

Every morning I would have to walk to the bottom of my hill, stand in the freezing cold and stare at Mount Shasta in the distance (a perfectly formed one-bump, snow-topped MOUNTAIN that is actually a volcano). The bus would take us to the bottom of the school's hill and we would have to walk UP the hill along a paved walkway with an antique railing that looked like a bunch of pipes for about three blocks. There were houses along our path and even a street, but school buses couldn't safely maneuver the steepness and hairpin turns so we were relegated to walking.

Recently I created a facebook page so all of my former classmates could assemble in one spot. And several have recounted their own stories of climbing the hill to get to school. So I'm totally NOT making this up. Six years. UP the hill to get to school and DOWN the hill to the bus.

Unless I missed the bus.

That was really awesome! The couple of times we missed the bus my mom allowed me to walk with the older neighborhood kids. There was a path behind my house that wound through fields and along a ledge that overlooked the entire town. The view was amazing! The path dropped us practically at the front door of the school and I don't recall there being much uphill climb - more of a lateral move if anything.

And yes we had to go to school in the snow. I know we had snow days, but not many and certainly not due to the laughable pittance amounts that has called off my kids' schools.

Indeed, back when I went to school, I had to WALK... UPHILL... BOTH WAYS... and IN THE SNOW!