Submarines and Snow

[dcseain]

In the town where I was born,
Lived a man who sailed the sea,
And he told us of his life,
In the land of submarines,

So we sailed up to the sun,
Till we found a sea of green,
And we lived beneath the waves,
In our yellow submarine,

We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,

And our friends are all aboard,
Many more of them live next door,
And the band begins to play.

(Trumpets play)

We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,

(weird sounds)

As we live a life of ease,
Everyone of us has all we need (has all we need)
Sky of blue (sky of blue) and sea of green (sea of green)
In our yellow (in our yellow) submarine (submarine. Blaaaha)

We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine,

We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

182, 273, 282, 455, 281, 353, 586 & 1066: those were the numbers of my yellow submarines. I never, in 13 years of K-12 school, had to walk to school. I was always bused. My HS class chose Yellow Submarine as our class song, as most of us spent at least an hour riding to school.

Virgnia "Ginny" Mondgrain drove me to school for most of those 13 years. Her grandson Jimmy would be with us sometimes in the afternoons coming home from HS. Invariably, the days she had Jimmy on the bus, it would take us 2 or 3 hours to get home, instead of the usual 60-90 minutes. We would recite One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for him, and sing with him. Sometimes, Ginny would bake us cookies or brownies, and she brought cupcakes for birthdays.

I grew up in Dale City, in Prince William County. I went to high school in the Alexandria/Annandale area of Fairfax County. It snowed on 11 November 1987. Rememberance Day, aka Veterans' Day, is a holiday in the Prince William County Schools. In Fairfax County, the 11th is a school day, but election day is a holiday. That 11 November they were calling for a few inches of snow.

I got the bus to HS at 7 AM. The snow was alread about ankle deep at that hour, and still coming down. People driving by looked at me funnily standing at the corner. The ones who had to stop for my school bus were completely baffled. For reference, Robert Spillane had newly arrived from Boston to run the Fairax schools a few months before.

On a normal day, i got an the bus at 7, we picked up 3 more students at 2 other stops, then got to Godwin Middle School about 7:25, where the students from Montclair transferred to our bus, and we were on the road about 7:30, and we got to school about 8. That day, we got to school at 11.

That day, we got to Godwin about 7:40, and to school at 11. Our schoolday went from 08:30 to 16:00, so with schools closing 2 hours early that day, we got out of school at 11:30 - a 1 hour early dismissal got us out at 12:30.

So we got back on the bus at 11:30. I got home that night at 19:00. So 7ish hours getting home that day. If i recall, neary half of all students in Fairfax County and Fairfax City did not get home that night. And Bob Spillane learned that here in DC, we do not do Winter like up in Boston.

Comments

special kind of crazy...

[happypete.livejournal.com]

the kids from PWC and Loudoun who go to TJ. It was bad enough for us Fairfax students, dealing with the extra long bus rides. Yours were just plain insane..and then there's the LATE BUS!

Re: special kind of crazy...

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

1066 was the Area 1 late bus. A bunch of us from Dale City/Montclair would ride it down to the Lorton Library, then call someone's parent to get us all and take us home.

Re: special kind of crazy...

[nadyalec.livejournal.com]

yup. i remember.

Re: special kind of crazy...

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

:) Hiya. We should chat at some point.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Sure about Spillane?

I graduated in '86 and Bob Spillane the villian dujour my senior year.

All the teachers were "working the rule" in a salary protest so nobody could get a teacher's recommendation for college.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Ah, i remember that. We had no homework for a good chunk of the year due to that.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

You are right. Bob Spillane arrived is July of 1985 - i guess it was just his first dealing with our ever-so-random-versus-predictions snowfalls here.

[kmhoofnagle.livejournal.com]

I should remember some of these details of 87 in Fairfax County and i dont. Probably because I drove a 69 Monte Carol that year and didn't go to a magnet school.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Had that day not been a holiday in my county, it probably would not have stuck in my memory so. The 10 hours on the bus for 30 minutes of school probably helps with the memory thing too, come to think of it. :)