Me getting to school, as a child in the 50s, was radically different from what we see in 2021.
When I started first grade, at six years old, in 1954, I rode my tiny 20″ bicycle a mile through residential Los Altos streets, in the company of my older brother, Frank (Chip), who was eight years old. Our parents thought nothing of it, as far as I know. It never came up in later conversation. I suppose sometimes when it was raining or something they’d drive us, but I don’t remember that. And I do remember sometimes doing it on my own; but I was only six, so maybe that memory is flawed. We lived at 629 Benvenue Avenue in Los Altos, and St. Nicholas Catholic School was in the buildings that are now St. Williams Catholic Church.
Although this would be highly unusual now, it was commonplace then. Chip and I went to the Catholic school, but that neighborhood was full of kids our age, and the others took their bikes to a nearby public school.
When I was in third grade, we moved to 23260 Eastbrook Ave, also in Los Altos. From then on, Chip and I went to the public school, Loyola Elementary School, which is still a public school today. It’s on Berry avenue. It was two miles by bicycle. The first year or so I took a school bus that would wind up from the school through the hills of Los Altos Hills, above Magdalena Ave. The school was served by five or six different buses, so everybody who lived further than a block or so away could ride the bus if they wanted. The buses were always lined up waiting to go when the final bell rang. I was one of the last to be picked up in the morning, so morning rides were fine; but that meant I was also one of the last to be dropped off in the afternoon, so it was a long trip. It took 45 minutes to get home, so it was boring. By luck of the draw, none of my good friends were on the same bus. So I just looked out the window and waited my turn. The school bus was a classic yellow school bus, owned and operated by the school district.
Sometime within a year or so, maybe even while still in third grade, I was allowed to take my bicycle instead of the bus. That was a two mile ride through mostly residential streets, with a bit along Fremont Ave, a main street. A third grader riding the bike to school, two miles down in the morning and back up a couple of tough hills in the afternoon, was also commonplace.
That was the pattern for me through middle school, which was slightly further, but by then I was in middle school, which was seventh and eighth grade. I rode my bike unless it was raining, in which case I took the school bus through basically the same long winding route. The school bus became more interesting because I did have some friends, and there were a couple girls I liked who took the same bus. Not that we’d flirt, because that would have been embarrassing. But I was a middle schooler, a boy, and proximity to girls, especially some special girls, was way more exciting than I would let on.
By the time I started high school, at Chester F. Awalt High School, bikes were not cool. As with elementary For afternoons I took a long bus ride, about an hour long, through the hills. By that time I’d been with the same kids on basically the same bus route since Loyola, so the social aspects of the bus were a good thing. I can still remember the names of some of the girls who’d ride that bus with me. With fondness. Girls were so exciting … not accessible yet, I was too young for dating, but we could like each other and talk about school and homework. The bus ride wasn’t bad.
Then they switched me to St. Francis, from the public coeducational high school to a Catholic boys high school. Bicycling was still uncool. On rainy days and when I had a reason (some project to carry, for example, or staying after school for activities) they’d let me drive the 1958 Chevrolet station wagon, the third car in the family, to school. That made me proud and happy. But most of the time I walked to school and back, every day, usually with a neighbor kid who was a friend just for the walk, not in school (we had no classes together). That was a 2.2 mile walk each way. It took about 45 minutes.
