Did anyone actually hear "walked four miles to school in knee-deep snow, etc" stuff growing up ?

[steve2470]

I never did. Of course I grew up in Florida

[Downwinder]

1. I was pulled on a sled, while my brother walked.

[shraby]

2. I had to walk two miles to school and home...uphill...

both ways.

[nadine_mn]

3. I onced jokingly asked my grandpa if he ever had to and his answer was classic:

He said "No way, it was too far - I hopped the train and rode with the hobos"

My grandpa was awesome

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Only from my parents...........as a joke.

And my husband and I used to kid our children about it too.......they always knew it was a joke!

[Chan790]

5. I actually did have to walk a few miles from school in knee-deep snow.

The joys of growing up in New England on top of a mountain in the Berkshires...I was probably 11 or 12 before I realized this was a joke to some people and not a normal life-experience. I also remember everybody having to get-out and push the school bus in 2nd grade.

On the plus side, not everybody can say that their sled-run has a 15' cliff in the middle of it that lets you get wicked air or that they caused an avalanche when they were 9 or closed a US highway because they were rolling a snowball and it got away from them, kept rolling down the hill and was 6' wide when it reached the intersection.

It snows up-to-8 (rarely 9) months a year where I grew up. September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April (and sometimes early May)

[steve2470]

6. I'm glad the trek had some enjoyment to it.

In Florida, of course, it had a bit of "rural legend-ism" to it.

[Ms. Toad]

44. ditto.

A mile and a half to, and a mile and a half home. When the snow got thigh deep, we'd get a ride in whatever equipment could be easily hooked to the tractor.

Didn't get a school bus until 7th grade.

But those 5-10' snow drifts made sweet snow forts!

[abq e streeter]

7. I did walk about 2&1/2 miles home from school during the largest blizzard ever recorded in Chicago.

I also walked over a mile through several feet high snow drifts in 20 below ( air temp. not counting wind chill) weather to my "supplier's" house when I had run out of... (um what's the statute of limitations on weed possession? )

[deucemagnet]

8. Knee deep snow? Hell, that's nuthin'!

Back in the day I had to go to the university's computer lab and log onto a unix terminal with a green and black monochrome screen just to check my email. Back in those days, we only checked our email about three or four times a day. Smart phones, wi-fi, hah! We had to walk to the IT building uphill and in waist-deep snow if we wanted to get online, and we din't have none a' them fancy browsers or email clients, either! Back then, you knew your unix commands or you went without! And we were glad to have that limited connectivity, too! 'Course folks wuz a lot tougher back in the early '90s. We had to be.

On edit: I meant "unix" rather than "linux". See, we didn't even have linux back then. Damn kids!

[steve2470]

9. haha ! nt

[treestar]

16. Yes!

We had to get up to change the channel on TV. Actually walk over to the TV to change it. And we only had 4 channels that worked. The dial only went to 13, and the ones that didn't work had snow only.

We had only one phone in the house and it was attached with a cord. You actually had to stay by the phone to talk on it. When it rant you had to go pick it up with no idea who was on the other end. If you called somebody who was not home, all you got was endless ringing. No way to leave a message unless there was someone there. And they had to write it down.

In the car all we had were radios. No record players in cars! No phones. No GPS. We had to use a map - a paper map - to find directions.

[Grantuspeace]

17. yeah, but........

Mom was there to raise us kids. She got us ready for our hike to school. And she would be waiting for us when we got home. Dad would get home by 5 and would have weekends off. There would be no TV in the kitchen, so we actually talked about our day at the dinner table. Etc. Etc. Lol Oh yeah.... The dinner table. The place we keep our mail. Lol it only get cleaned off at thanksgiving. Lol

[Jamastiene]

35. ...

"Back in those days, we only checked our email about three or four times a day."

[pacalo]

10. I never heard it from my parents, only from my husband!

He was one of eight children, all military brats, whose mother had been a very impressionable child during the Depression. Their dad was a high-rank officer, but the mother was always thrifty, never wasted anything but saved everything left over. She re-cycled before its value was widely & fully realized.

This "walked-four-miles" example really touched me deeply: For his & his siblings' birthdays, they were only given their choice of pie. And he married a girl at the other side of the spectrum. I couldn't have spoiled him more after we were married.

[Skittles]

11. no - and my dad really did do that

in Minnesota during the depression

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

12. My father grew up in Laredo. According to him they didn't have anything

They had school, but apparently they didn't have books. The library was a small room above the police dept and had all of two books.

He never explained how they had a police dept though since they didn't have police officers (at least according to him).

Whatever we think of, he comes back and says that they didn't have it.

"How clean was the air back then?"

"Laredo didn't have air."

"What kind of toys did you get on Christmas?"

"We didn't have toys or Christmas."

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. LOL... My grandfather's standard was "We played with rocks"

..."And sometimes sticks. Yes sticks, when we could find them. But those were a luxury. You kids are spoiled."

[alterfurz]

28. Stick = #1 among the 5 Best Toys of All Time!

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-all-time/all/1

[steve2470]

14. The most old-school thing my parents ever did was this:

My dad insisted I insert cardboard into my worn shoes so I could wear them longer with a hole in the sole. From what I've heard, this was very common during the Great Depression.

[treestar]

15. No. My parents both grew up in cities

But my grandfather did once tell us of having cardboard shoes and sliding on the ice in them to school in the winter.

He had a lot of fun stories - getting into the communion wine, that sort of thing.

[sarge43]

18. I walked a mile and a half between drifts twice as high as I was.

The snow off road and sidewalks was at minumum waist deep. One of my big brother's favorite entertainments was throwing me in a drift and watching me dig my way out.

The scene in A Christmas Story where mom wraps up Randy like a Fed Ex package is dead on. A good part of a kidder teacher's day was taken up with wrapping and unwrapping the munchkins.

[hobbit709]

19. No. I heard the "walking to school during the bombing"

Or more accurately, in between air raids.

[struggle4progress]

20. I used to walk barefoot through the snow to get to school. Can I get credit for that?

My college dorm was about 15 yards from the dining hall, and the dining hall was about 15 yards from the classroom building. So I would walk barefoot from my room to breakfast and then barefoot from breakfast to class, then whine and moan about walking barefoot through the snow to get an education

[whistler162]

22. and up hill both ways to boot.. you young whipper snapper!

[HopeHoops]

23. Oh yeah, but so did my kids. I lived on THE street that was cut off for bus service.

1.75 miles (by road, not crow). The kids just down the street were a shortcut through the golf course away from school. I had to walk all the fucking way. One day, it was beautiful in the morning. When I got out of school, I had a full backpack and a saxophone, no jacket, jeans and sneakers and it was pissing freezing rain everywhere. When I got home, I shit you not, I stood my pants up in the bathroom - they were frozen solid. I climbed in bed naked with every cover I could find and was still freezing three hours later. None of that is stretching the truth. I hated that day.

Now my MOM had to walk two miles in the snow with no shoes, or something like that.

[Odin2005]

24. This Minnesotan did!

My grandma told me that she went to school with 2 hot potatoes in her pockets, LOL!

[MrsBrady]

25. no, but in depression era texas and oklahoma panhandle

you know that they did

you just made me think of this....
when my grandfather was back from WW2, he got a job and worked for several years for the
county...he worked for the county they lived in, when my mom was young.

It snowed so much one time that people were trapped in their cars, stuck on the roads...and keep in mind this was
1950s in a rural Texas area.

They were having a horrible snow and blizzard.
He actually did walk 5 miles in the snow to get to the county barn to get to the
tractors, and rescued about 5 people, and was gone for two or three days.

I don't know how he got food or slept, but they weren't tall-tale tellers.

[blockhead]

26. we had to follow the cattle herd to school just to keep our feet warm.

[Curmudgeoness]

30. Well, at least you had warm feet!

[Jamastiene]

37. My aunt said she had to walk behind the mule to plow the fields even in winter.

She said she stepped in the mule dung on purpose to warm her feet. She said they plowed every day until spring.

[Iggo]

27. Heard it? Hell, I've used it!!!

[Ptah]

29. My father was prone to remind us that his parents didn't have electricity until 1945,

after his sons returned from WWII.

My siblings and I had to do some livestock care, even if it was -40 F.

We also had to walk a quarter mile to the highway to board the school bus.

[Curmudgeoness]

31. Yes, I heard it all the time from my parents. And it was true. And

at that time, they had to walk back home for lunch and return to school.

I also had to walk about 2 miles, but I don't have kids to torment with all the stories. Too bad.

And we wonder why few people were fat back then?!?!?!?

[Jamastiene]

33. Yes, plus they had to walk uphill, in the snow, barefooted, BOTH WAYS

to get their water in a bucket from the well.

I've heard the one you mentioned and more.

[Downwinder]

36. You young'ins just have it too easy.

I used to walk a quarter mile to the well to get water, dodging the Jersey bull in the pasture.

Now I walk a quarter mile to Albertsons to get a gallon of tea, dodging the Dodge Rams in the parking lot.

The pasture was a whole lot safer than the parking lot.

The more it changers, the more it stays the same.

[Jamastiene]

38. ...

[RebelOne]

34. I also grew up in Florida and walked 2 miles to school in knee-deep heat. n/t

[libodem]

39. Yes

My dad grew up in Evanston Wyoming. Very cold and snowy there. He actually froze his fingers nearly requiring amputation. He had a paper route and earned his first bicycle in that cold.

[mulsh]

40. My Irish grandfather told me about a blizzard in Galway when he was about 11.

He said they dug tunnels &paths and made forts to toss snow balls at the black and tans ( he was born in 1889). the only fond memory he had of the B&T's.

that's about the closest any of my relative came to "walking four miles in the snow" My dad who grew up on the east coast always said he missed the snow but no enough to move out of the SF Bay area. I've seen it snow 3 times in my life.

I tell people that I walked two miles up hill both ways to and from school. Which if you're familiar with the Oakland Hills you'll know can be easily done.

[MichiganVote]

41. Actually, did it all the time. We liked it. Wicked snowball fights. :)

[MattBaggins]

42. I use that myself

Just 20 minutes ago I used the word "galoshes".

[Manifestor_of_Light]

43. Dad said he was chased to school...

by dinosaurs.

they came out of Lake Erie, like Nessie, and chased him to school. He grew up in Ashtabula. NE Ohio.

He told my five year old daughter that dinosaurs chased him to school, and she said "Naawwww, Gramps."

I asked him if they wrote on papyrus scrolls too.