For my first through 12th-grade school career we lived in a fairly nice area of San Rafael, on the edge of the Dominican area, but not really in it. The Dominican area refers to the neighborhoods roughly surrounding the Dominican Convent, back then anyway. I am not sure the convent is still active, but there is a college there now. This was a desirable area, but we were not quite in the nicer part of it. We were a bit on the edge, down over a ridge from the hill that was on the border. If we had been a bit further up the hill, or anywhere in the sight of the convent area, it would have been obvious we were in the Dominican neighborhood. But we were too close to the commercial area of town. This was a plus for my mother, who had to walk where she had to go during the week when my father was not around to help with errands. And, that was most of the time.
It was good for us too. Elementary school was only a 10-15 minute walk; depending on how slow you took it, or how many people tagged along in groups slowing each other down. Most of them did not take the last little dip out of the hills like I did. Not that this was a real big deal. I knew some kids came from more financially stable families than I did. And I knew there were a few who were in far worse conditions.
There were those on bikes. Sometimes they would walk the bikes along with those of us who did not have them. Then there were car people. I could see the use of cars in bad weather, but these guys always were dropped off. Come to think of it, I do not remember getting rides even in bad weather. It must have happened at some point. But walking was what I did. No rides in the car for me. No bike for me. I did not even learn to ride a bike until 6th grade or so. And I did not have my own until I was old enough to get a job to buy one used, which I still have.
Junior High was about 2.4 miles away. If it had been 2.5 miles, I would have been able to ride the bus. The cut-off point was about two houses further towards the end of my street. Because of that, I had to either walk or walk. At the time, my father worked about a half-mile from the school, so I rode with him to work in the mornings, and then walked the rest of the way. I got to walk the entire distance home.
High School was easier since it was only two blocks away.
Walking to Elementary School was not always without incident. Some kids just would not adjust well to anyone else that was not in their group, or who was not quite like them in some way. For a while, it seemed I had a small group of hill kids after me. It was like they did not want me to be on their hill, not even to get to school and back. I could handle them just fine, but it did get old. Name-calling, pushing, and the typical things kids do to assert the feeling that they are better than someone else. Of course this was much more mild bullying than anything suffered by today’s kids.
At a certain point, this taunting spilled over to the playground during recess. At this point, it had become a bit more physical. They would actually grab me from behind, and while one held my arms, the others would poke at me from the front, threatening to grab parts of me that I knew would hurt if grabbed. Of course, with odds like that, I was always going to lose. Except for this one time. One time when one of them came up behind me and grabbed my arms, I fought back. It must have been before he got both arms, because I had a free arm, and caught the guy by surprise when I quickly jabbed my elbow down into his stomach. This must have been a total shock to him.
They never bothered me again.
Memory is the Key 