The school bus is everywhere I go in Niagara. I don't remember them in St. Catharines when I went to school. I assume that's because there were schools located within a few miles of each other. As an urban community, that distance of walking to school was normal, expected and the only option. That's my guess. Statistics confirm this.
These are US statistics from the Safety Administration:
In 1969, 48 percent of children 5 to 14 years of age usually walked or bicycled to school (The National Center for Safe Routes to School, 2011).
In 2009, 13 percent of children 5 to 14 years of age usually walked or bicycled to school (National Center, 2011).
In 1969, 41 percent of children in grades K–8 lived within one mile of school;
89 percent of these children usually walked or bicycled to school
In 2009, 31 percent of children in grades K–8 lived within one mile of school;
35 percent of these children usually walked or bicycled to school
"The circumstances that have led to a decline in walking and bicycling to school did not happen overnight and have created a self-perpetuating cycle. As motor vehicle traffic increases, parents become more convinced that it is unsafe for their children to walk or bicycle to school. They begin driving them to school, thereby adding even more traffic to the road and sustaining the cycle. "
What I notice is that school buses pick children up all over the neighbourhood and all over the streets everywhere. The bus in my neighbourhood stops at the corner of my street and then the very next street. School buses operate as parent and chauffeur substitutes. With all those buses, things are complicated now - there are 18,000 school buses in Ontario.
There are equally complicated activities to return people to having their children walk to school. Things like the Walking School Bus - you can imagine it means walking to school in groups under adult supervision using prescribed protocols.
I realize that school busing alone tells us how much effort there will be to reduce our carbon footprint and start to address climate change. We depend on our complicated social order.
Today I am pitching the Fantasy of Trees wreaths for those of you who are fairly close by for pick up or delivery. You can purchase one of the wreaths. I am partial to the Monarch Butterflies Wreath - it is a lovely gift. Let me know if you might be interested.
This is attributed to Oscar Wilde and to George Bernard Shaw. It is considered to combine wistfulness together with jealousy.
This is a perfect quote for the pictures of college students on the beaches of the Eastern U.S. where Florida and other southern states are struggling to get on with closing beaches, and then to make the closures actually happen.
That's because the headline yesterday - on March 19th (a week after closures of everything was underway here) - was:
'If I get corona, I get corona': Coronavirus pandemic doesn't slow spring breakers' party
This comes from a CBS video and is the headline that is being repeated over and over on social media and other news sites.
We Canadians turn out to have our own eccentrics and foolish people - at the other end of the age spectrum. The National Post covered the story of Bruce Beach, born 1934. He lives in Horning's Mills, 2 hours northwest of Toronto. He has built 10,000 square foot nuclear fallout shelter out of old school buses, buried beneath several metres of concrete and soil. The National Post article from 2017 is HERE. The article repeats that he is originally from Kansas.
The Global News article in 2015 describes how it is the site of the biggest preparedness event in Canada. The article is HERE. This article has pictures of the 'bunkers' and gives sufficient creepy details of the zombie survival event. This makes Bruce Beach a worrisome figure and a pathetic one given he predicted the doomsday date to be December, 2002.
So I guess foolishness isn't wasted on any age group.
We're on to blue lilies today. It is Brian's birthday and so we celebrate the hybridizer's wildest dreams.
