Member-only story
Memoir
The Bus Stop
Growing up in the ’70s in a small town
So many things happened at the bus stop.
My parents bought a ranch-style house and moved to a small town in 1972. I was 5 years old and started kindergarten that fall. I had to walk four blocks to the bus stop. This was my first taste of independence and while it was exhilarating, I was also scared. I was leaving the comfort of my nest, venturing out into the world. Previously my world was small; it consisted of my immediate and extended family and a few friends.
The bus held 20 strangers, so I’m sure my eyes were as wide as an owl’s as I took my seat. My fear turned to anger when an older boy got on the bus. He was husky and had shoulder-length black hair with piercing green eyes. He sang a song in a taunting voice with a smirk on his face that started, “Kindergarten babies, first-grade angels….” I was insulted! I was a kindergartener and he was calling me a baby!
Today, I Googled these lyrics for the first time. Apparently, it’s an old-fashioned chant kids sang decades ago while jumping rope. There are various versions. One woman said her mom’s version from growing up on the west side of Chicago in the 1940s went, “First-grade babies, second-grade tots, third-grade angels, fourth-grade snots!” Another woman from Minnesota recalled the song as:
