Four Waring Square Blocks

When my children were in grade school, we lived just over half a mile from the school – about a fifteen-minute walk in good weather. This particular day I drove the kids instead of walking with them. As I dropped them off the fourth-grader said, “Today’s root beer float day. I’m supposed to bring bendy straws.” The nearest store, Frank’s Food Town, was a Quonset hut another half-mile down the road. He did carry bendy straws. Somehow, he knew where they were in his confused jumble of merchandise. The Quonset hut is still there – well disguised – though Frank has been gone for decades. It’s been a realtor’s office, a dentistry, and a bike shop. Even the road between the school and the store is gone. That fourth-grader has a boy in kindergarten a few blocks away. His parents get to scramble to make sure he’s ready for school every morning. The more things change, the more they stay the same.