LIKE a lot of today’s
parents, I spend a
ridiculous amount of
time in my car trans-
porting my darling but
thankless children from
school to hockey prac-
tices to music lessons to
soccer games.

Preafly don’t fike having
to drive my kids cverswhere,
It’s nor thar Prt dacs
fatthough my children say I
anv it’s thar T don’: bike

causmg any more pollution
than Phave to. [hate con:
tributing to traffic congestion.
and I figure kids who sit in
tront of TV sets for a good
Part of each day can use the
walking exercise.

Sail, do che desing
because I want ro support my
kids’ commitments; | werry
about their physical satery,
and the bus svstem ip our
neck of the woods is to0 Slow

_to fit our hectic schedules.

The nee result of all of this
ferrying back and forth is that
my children have developed
into decidedly reluctant
pedestrians. While they're all
independent sorts, capable
and happy to travel alone
whether it be busing down-
town or {ving to Europe, any
destination benween tive and
25 blocks is, in their young
minds, an unfathomable dis-
tance if they have to walk it.
Considering the small fortune
] pay tor their athletic
footwear, | find this atticude

Musician

Dear Editor:

Whar a wonderful evening
I spent on Monday night
(March 30)! 1 was, like many
others, entertained by the
Vancouver Symphony
Orchestra, right in my own
backvard (the Centennial the-
ater!)

Close to
hone

ey aperating 2 to sav the feast.

Bur even more S appalling
than chet atdtade about
walking is the way my kiss
behave in the car.

tt all started when thes
outerew their baby seats. Uhe
day PF sald those seats my
tvkes no longer saw them
selves as having assigned seat
ing and all chaos broke lose,

At the same time, the
TONE passenger seat, never at
isstic betore. became the ulti
mate in travelling axury So
coveted was the front, tacit
became a piace a wuy would
risk lite, fimb, and my wrath
CO ger to first.

The morning drive to
school has always been the
worst of our commutes. A
typical departtire scene goes
semething like vhis: around 8
am. Pannounce chat it’s time
to go to school. (1 drive my
Kids te school in the morning
because it is right on my way
to the Dogwic Park.)

All three kids make the
frantic sprint for our van,
jackets, backpacks and fists
flying. Once the roughest or
fastest guy has secured the
throne, the two remaining

Besides the great) work
conducted by Clyde Mitchell |
was truly delighted ro. see
young Ryan Karchut (17!)
play his violin the way he did.

What a delight it was for all
of us who witnessed. Ryan
lives his music: he breathes it.

What a good example for

win

uciant pedestr |

contenders pick themsehes ap
and make their bid tor the
nbddle seat, After same mere
pushing and pulling the tina
loser aitist share the back seat
with the te large stinky dows
thar wall be walked once the
children are dropped at?

Tnevitabh someone ends
up fase-tirst on the stdewalk,
gMportant papers and peanut
butter sandwiches strewn
about the ground, and bam
forced to teach chem all a ies
son by making them walk.

Lousy way tor ber us te
start the dav.

And even though these car
seat whiduaters have endured
long periods of banishment
from the front seat and the
car altogether, they are appar-
ently slow learners, because
they resume their attempts to
the front scat almost the
nunute their riding privileges
are reinstated,

We've been going through
this scenazio for 10 vears, tor
heaven's sake, you'd think
they'd learn.

Recently, though, ong kid
suggested a new sclution for
the front seat batrle, and it
scems to be working for
everyone. Ttinvolyes a svstem
for seat assignment based on
weekly allotments. Each guv
gets a week straight in the
trong sear, and then rotates to
the middle seat and finally the
back seat over the next two
weeks,

The gay who has to sit in
the very back seat gets to pick
the radio seation we tune inte

makes reader's day

our youth and for ourselves:
give it all! be all you can be! ...
there is no limit to what one
can do if he sets his mind and
heart on it Ryan. You made
navy day!

Louis Leblane

North Vancouver
odlouabc@lynx.be.ca

ans

during the drive. For a music:
leaving teenager this is a
much valued perk 11, hawer

J 1Dsist on maint aug, aon
tre Wor the velume knobs.

As tor the return trip trom
school the walk rakes fess
than 30 nunures so T eapect
my kids to hoofit. Eve. so,
thes try almost daily to coan a
vide trom me.

Fvers day around 3 p.m. |
get a phone call trom may kids
offering one of an enevclope
dia of creative reasons they
have come up with as to why
I should pick them up.

Here ts a quick sampling
of what [ hear:

@ Its raining and T feefa snit:
tle coming on,

@Wl just had PE and Fm tired
and there’s a chanes To omay
have sprained mv ankle during
the class;

MT have so many books to
carry home thar 1 can't possi-
bly make it in time to do all
my homework;

@ A big kid is being mean te
me and I"m scared.

M cand dast bur not feasty, J
have to go to the bathroom
real bad (to use the school
washrooms is, apparently evert
today, completely ect of the
question)!

Occasionally, if tls really
miserable outside or they
make me faagh, (Ul pick them
up. But more often than not,

IT make these reluctant pedes-
trians walk.

After all, the exercise is
good tor them and T have a
busy schedule of my own and
who's in charge here anvway?

Doi'r answer that.

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