why i walk my kid to school

it's the fourth week into fourth grade and: time has resumed flying, 7:30 in the morning still feels VERY early, and walking to school has resumed it's routine. everyone who finds out that we walk to school is usually suprised, because it is quite far by city-standards. it takes francis and i about 25 minutes (or even 35 minutes, if he stops to collect leaves along the way.) i walk home much faster.

i can be found guilty of doing things not necessarily out of desire, but for the mere sake of the memory. walking to school may be one of them. if our grandparents did it (in snow! uphill both ways!) it's the least we can do. it has been a habit of the past few years, and last year marked the first year where francis didn't complain. this year he doesn't even balk; it has become expected. maybe even normal. the fact that we usually merge with other walking-to-school children a few blocks from the school reinforces this, and he knows he's not the only one, which helps; he doesn't realize (yet) that he is walking much farther. the fact that we have only one car, and that we live outside of the school-district-zone for bussing are actually the main reasons for this. (greg goes to work much earlier than school starts, so that he can be done in time to pick him up.) but i guess i've come to look on the whole thing as: enforced excercise. i need it. francis needs it. and so we bundle up, and we deal. i probably won't go quite so far as to say "i just love my morning walk", but there is a part of me that recognizes that the day goes by so fast, and the morning walk is the only slow part of the day, and the only truly one-on-one time i get with francis. afterschool is sports, or teatime, then homework, dinner, reading, bath, bed. there's just not enough hours in the evening to do all this it seems.

i used to walk quite a bit. when i used to live at home, i would walk down our hill (out of the tree line, and to the fields, about a half and hour) and then up again. to be alone, to get fresh air. before i was married, when i lived on stone way, but worked in the u-district, i would walk to work and back again. just because. nowadays, there's not much to walk to. i've never managed to make a habit of walking around greenlake, even though i can walk to it. i find it boring. it can't be just for the sake of excercise, or i find myself falling short of my goals. it must be that i HAVE to do it. i MUST take francis to school, so: no car and no bus leaves only feet. school has been a nice incentive. in the morning, it is usally gray, there are few people on the streets, and it is quiet. francis chatters undistracted. the leaves are changing. we looks for snails. even when it rains, in rainboots and umbrella, he seems completely unfazed. maybe even enjoys it. i know this may possibly last for only one more year; who knows where he or we will be when he reaches the 6th grade? but at least when he is old, he can regale his children and grandchildren with his very own "when i was your age, i had to walk to school, uphill both ways" stories...