Shank's Pony

Getting to and from school during my first six years of formal education was an adventure in itself as parents were expected to provide transportation, the method of which was not a concern to the Department of Education nor it seems to the Child Welfare Department.

Most of the time getting to and from our little red school house on the prairie involved the packing of lunches, jars of water,  and homework into a bike basket; and the student travelling 2 1/2 miles to and from school across country roads, braving whatever weather the had to offer--wind, rain, hail, or dust twister; through puddles or  up hills over gravel roads in a countryside with foxes, badgers, and  coyotes on a one gear bicycle that in my case had been my mother's when she was 19 (I was six) and my sister used our aunt's. The only size adjustment available was the raising or lowering of the seat.  Full pedals were not always part of the bicycle equipage , nor were chain guards or handlebar covers.


Riding a bicycle after a rain storm would often involve  of  a lot of pushing as the mud would jam in the fender , and if you didn't have a fender the back of the  your jacket and pants would be splashed with mud and water until you were surely soaked by the time you reached your destination.

One  school afternoon during a particularly heavy downpour, the teacher telephoned a neighbouring farmer to ask if he would bring his tractor to help transport some of the students to a road where the gravel was heavier and where their parents could meet them to pick them up.  Bicycles would have to remain at the school for the night.

Before the farmer and the tractor arrived, this same teacher took the time to check every one's rubber boots  and shoes to make sure they were dry. If they weren't as dry as he thought they should be, he stuffed newspaper wading inside to make sure our feet were warm before we started on the bumpy albeit novel trip across pasture lands and quagmire of dirt roads in the rain.

I believe there were at least 5 students who somehow managed to 'hang on' on that perilous and wet journey. 

 My  Dad met the tractor with the 1/2 ton truck and got us safely home.  Upon our arrival , my mom took one look at the newspaper in my boots and went straight to the telephone and called the teacher's residence.  I heard her thanking this 19 year old fledgling pedagogue for his thoughtfulness and commonsense. 

I got a new pair of boots that next Saturday. We got the bikes home the next day. I think ( for safety sake??) the next week was when I started riding the horse (bareback) to school as I followed my sister  down the road as she rode the bike.  The horse could walk down any road --muddy or not.

My friend's mother would often refer to using  Shank's Pony to get to school--SHE could do that as she only lived 1/4 mile from school.