How did you get to your school?

My mother couldn't drive, my dad left for work very early in the morning, there was no bus service in the town, and I didn't have a bicycle. I walked to school.  It wasn't a big deal since all the children walked.  It was a small town and the school was in the middle of the town.  It was a two story brick building with a basement that housed the cafeteria  and an attached gymnasium.  It housed all twelve grades.  First floor was for the first thru eighth and the second floor was for the high school students.  When I started school at the age of six, since there was no kindergarten then, I was in Mrs. Siggins class with the first and second grade in the same room.  I didn't know how to read when I entered school but somehow I learned very quickly even with more than thirty other students in the same room.  We had a lot of rules for behavior and if they were broken punishments were dispensed.  My favorite punishment was standing behind the piano which was in the front of the classroom just inches from the blackboard.  From there, we could make faces at the other students and draw on the board.  As long as we were quiet with our mischief we never got into more trouble.  The second punishment was being sent to the cloakroom.  That one wasn't bad either since we could sit on the floor and sleep or check out all the things that were stored there.  Being sent to the principal's office was the bad one.  That was the punishment that our parents were told about and caused a second punishment when we got home.  I don't think I was bad in the early grades only bored.  When we would finish one workbook, the teacher would give us another.  We didn't know that our parents would have to pay for these and my sister and I caused a small financial emergency for our parents since these books were fun and we went through dozens of them.
Walking to school had its rewards.  There were pear trees on the path we took everyday.  When the pears were ripe, we would pick some off the ground on our way home until the woman came out of her house and told us that we were such good children that we could have all the pears that we wanted.  They didn't taste so good after that.  Speaking of eating, we would walk home for lunch and mom would have it ready for us when we got there.  It was a special treat for us to eat at school.  The school lunches were very good.  The cooks knew their business and they cared since their children ate there too.
By the time, I was in high school a new school had been built to accomodate three small towns including ours.  Then, I would walk to the grade school and get on the bus to go to the high school that was five miles south of our town.  Of course, there were times when I didn't make it to the bus in time and I would have to run over the railroad tracks to the road the bus traveled and hope the driver would stop for me.  She always did and had a good laugh.  Mornings and I have never gotten along well.