Walk it off, whiners

Aww, poor babies:

Parents in some Indiana school districts say they are frustrated with changes in school bus routes that districts say are designed to save money.

School officials say the changes, which include fewer bus routes and require more children to walk to school, are needed because many districts are facing steep budget cuts as a result of changes in the state's property tax system.

[. . .]

Elementary students in Elkhart who live within a mile of their school have to walk or be dropped off under the new policy.

When we were by-God kids, we had it tough, didn't we, not like the pampered brats today. We had to walk three miles to school and three miles home, and it was uphill both ways! The heat was unbearable every morning, and there was a blizzard every day on the way home. When we got to school, we had to chop wood for the stove, put a new coat of paint on the desks and wash the principal's car every morning and still be ready for class at 8 a.m. with the 1,000-word essays we had written the night before in between doing 50 math problems and memorizing the Declaration of Independence. We got 5 minutes for lunch, and there was no such thing as recess, and if we were caught whispering, the teacher would make us stand of one leg for an hour, and then we were forced to tell our parents about it, and they bought the teacher dinner as thanks for keeping us on the straight and narrow.