Wilbur's Suburbo

                                                               Chapter Two:
                                                                                 “On the Road”/Driving
 
                 Back on March 9, 2018, the New York Times ran a story by Corey Kilgannon entitled “A Problem for High Schools: More Cars, and Nowhere to Park Them.”  Like many Suburbo high schools in the New York metropolitan area the number of students driving  to school (each in his/her own automobile!) has led John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School to convert a former athletic field into an extra parking lot to accommodate the overflow.  (The article also notes: “The parking areas at John L. Miller-Great Neck North High School here on Long Island can sometimes resemble a luxury dealership --- BMWs, Range Rovers, Mercedes-Benzes.  And these are the students’ cars, not the teachers’.”  It seems a Great Neck “tradition” is to give your child a luxury auto when (s)he turns 17!  Enter, Thorstein Veblen {Google him, if you don’t get the reference}).

             This led me to reminisce about “getting to school” a half-century ago in my own New York City suburb (on the less affluent South Shore of Long Island).  That entailed waiting at a bus stop early in the morning --- no matter what the weather --- hanging out with kids from the neighborhood and talking about sports, school, TV shows, etc.  It was part of the larger socialization process.  You learned about a “seniority” pecking order (freshmen didn’t talk to juniors or seniors) and only a few older kids actually had cars --- and might, just might, pick you up (if you were their friend) at the bus stop and you could drive to school, the envy of those left at the bus stop!

                Of course, prior to high school, we walked to the local elementary school and then took a bus to Bay Shore Junior High.  The younger kids all took buses to school.  What I  learned, starting in 2014, is that many younger students in this Suburbo, are driven to school by a parent (or a "car-pool" parent) or actually do take the bus --- but it’s not like the old days, exactly, and that’s what today’s Suburbo is about.

                    Thanks for reading and have a great week!