Coming from the ’70’s, I always thought to carpool meant to ride-share.  These days I think it just means a great pool of suburbans idling in line to pick up their kids from school.  I don’t mind waiting, as the campus is located on a creek and I enjoy seeing the serenity of the crosses, Japanese maples, and the flowers you see here.  Generally there are bees buzzing around them, butterflies pausing prettily to land, or dragonflies zooming about.  It is a rare few minutes out of my day to savor the quiet without the distraction of a cell phone.  I still get tickled thinking about the scene in the movie Mr. Mom where the dad goes the wrong way to enter taking his kids to school.  He’d never done it but his wife was now the one “working.”  It IS true, you can always tell the dads because invariably they go the wrong way, garnering glares from the moms who are desperately trying to get their kids to school on time.  The “other parents” are essentially attempting to cut a very long, winding line.  At our school there is a police officer who directs traffic.  Last week no mom would let the Wrong-Way-Dad in so the cop had to pull out his whistle to halt the bumper to bumper turning cars; essentially forcing them to stop and let him in.  At first I was afraid of the carpool line but it really is no big deal.  I have attempted several times to explain it to my husband, on ride alongs, who still cannot seem to grasp it.  *SIGH*  The American businesswoman and transportation entrepreneur Robin Chase said:

”Transportation is the center of the world!  It is the glue of our daily lives.  When it goes well, we don’t see it.  When it goes wrong, it negatively colors our day, makes us feel angry and impotent, curtails our possibilities.”

I believe that to be true.  Get to where you’re going on time and your day goes smoothly.  Run late and you’re behind all day.  I can tell you one thing, I strive to always be on time for the carpool.