The Wheels on the Bus

I rode the school bus from the time I was in Kindergarten until the end of my tenth grade year when I got my first car.  No, I wasn’t continuously on the bus those eleven years and if you thought that then you are obviously too literal.  I had the misfortune of being one of the first stops on the bus route in the morning and one of the last to be dropped off in the afternoon.  And, as I lived in a rural area, I was on the bus for about an hour and a half every day.  I lived only 15 minutes drive from the school.  You can tell my family cared enough about me to transport me to and from school. 

Anyway, that school bus ride every day wasn’t so bad.  Mostly I passed the time reading.  The social interactions one observes on the school bus are fascinating.  I remember a few snippets of the school bus scene.

I was in third grade and a high school girl offered to put makeup on me.  She drew a rainbow on my cheek with eye shadow.   All the other girls in third grade were jealous when I got to school.  The high schooler wasn’t even popular, but she was practically an adult to us, so it didn’t matter.

In fourth grade I had birthday money that I brought to school with me.  I didn’t spend much of it at snack time that day so I brought the rest back home with me in the pocket of my Members Only jacket.  I lay down on a seat on the school bus when about half of the kids had gotten off already.  I dozed off for a while and when I woke up I realized my money was gone.  I thought it must have dropped on the floor of the bus.  I heard high school boys in the back of the bus whispering and cutting up.  I just knew they had taken it.  A few years later, one of those boys would be responsible for breaking into our house while we were away.  That guy has robbed me twice.

When I was in middle school a new kid in elementary school sat beside me on the bus for most of the year.  We had been given assigned seats that year.  I wore a fanny pack most of the time (hey, it was acceptable then).  I pulled my walkman out of my fanny pack to listen to it.  The girl wanted to borrow it.  I let her borrow a tape.  I never got the tape back.  She said her brother took it.  You can’t trust a kid with your mixed tape.

I was in ninth grade.  We pulled up to the house of one of my fellow classmates.  His house was on fire.  He yelled out “Oh no, my underwear!”.  The bus driver called it in and drove the kid to his grandparent’s house.  I was afraid for a while after that of pulling up to my house one day only to find it on fire.

How much stuff goes on in a school bus that teachers and parents don’t know about?  Probably a lot.  I think I’d rather drive my kids to school.  Then they won’t get their birthday money stolen or see a friend’s house on fire.       

Children are Better Than Adults

I know, I know it's ironic that my previous post was about how people procreate too much and this post is about how awesome kids are.  It's my prerogative.
Kids can be simultaneously some of the most entertaining, inspiring, cruel, and heartless people on the planet.  There are candy sweet stories of children saving puppies and feeding the homeless.  There are horrifying stories of children killing children and abusing their siblings.  I suppose children exemplify the extremes of humanity even better than most adults.  They lack experience and logic to temper their thoughts and decisions.  Those same characteristics that make them adorable also make them terrifying.  Just take these situations for example:

1. Seven year old child heroically dials 911 while armed gunmen are still in the house holding his parents at gunpoint.   
Watch the video

2. Two brothers age 10 and 12 attack two other children and leave them for dead in the UK.
Read the story

3. Eleven year old Mackenzie becomes paralyzed following an injury in a soccer game but maintains a positive attitude and regains the use of her legs.
Watch the video

4. Seven year old guilty of grand theft auto claims he just wants to "do hood rat stuff with my friends".
View the article

The list could go on and on.  Kids pretty much just do whatever makes them feel good.  If they want to go somewhere and their parents won't let them, they steal their grandma's SUV.  But this self-serving behavior doesn't account for the acts of altruism you see many children carry out.  What makes kids want to help others?  It can be argued that there is a certain amount of self-gratification to that too.  If it makes you feel good to make other people happy then why not do what it takes to make people happy?

Adults often get too caught up in the what ifs.  What if I don't get anything in return for my efforts? What if the person I'm trying to help takes advantage of me?  While these are all healthy questions to ask there are times when a childlike optimism and sympathy is called for.  Adversely it is this same trait of instant gratification desire that causes children not to consider the consequences of their actions.  Come to think of it, there are adults that act that way too, but by that point it isn't cute anymore.  It's just sad.

The Office

Please Don't Traumatize your Family

  I recently came across a rather disturbing advertisement in a local paper

Never-mind the fact that the it's an advertisement for a pet crematory, which is creepy enough as it is, but the fact that this guy has to involve his family in this line of work is just a little scary.  He has even named his business Butler and Son Pet Crematory, which has me wondering if that young boy in the picture wakes up every morning to the smell of burning cat hair.  And I thought washing the dishes as a kid was a dirty job.  Way to traumatize your family Pops.  I at least commend his efforts in ridding us of the horrors of another Pet Cemetery uprising or the prospect that Fido will revisit us as a Zombie-dog or, God forbid, end up stuffed and sitting beside Grandma's rocking chair in the Living Room.  In future, I would recommend leaving the kids out of this.