Boy, who wouldn't want a job like this?
Wanted: People willing to step in front of speeding cars, occasionally in rain or snow or scorching heat.Pay: $6 an hour, for two hours a day.With school already under way, the Indianapolis Police Department is still 11 crossing guards short, and officials are putting out a call to anyone interested in picking up a stop sign, donning a bright orange vest and helping shepherd children across busy streets.
When I was in the 7th and 8th grades at Hoagland Elementary School (at Hoagland and Butler streets, torn down a long time ago), I was a crossing guard, working the Butler and Fairfield intersection with no adult supervision. I don't see any kids out there by themselves now -- the insurance representative would probably have a heart attack.
It was the perfect job. I got to leave early from the last class of the day and the last class before lunch (even 7th- and 8th-graders could leave the building then), I got to wear a snappy white belt, I was permitted to stop traffic, and I was able to order around my classmates. If I had also been a hall monitor, I would have been the perfect nerd.
It's nice to know there's something I'm qualified for to fall back on if this newspaper thing doesn't work out. God knows there are plenty of people out there who shouldn't cross the street without some help.
Comments
And then there are the 4 year olds in my neighborhood that ride their big wheels with great abandon into the nearest intersection...without looking!
Maybe THEY would want to "volunteer?
Oh wait, their momma already GETS money from the state and feds...sorry...never mind.
;)
B.G.
At Mabel K. Holland Elementary on the north side, we got to wear orange safety patrol belts and, if you were lucky, stand your shift on the bridge that goes over North Clinton Street. Those were the days!
And if you take that $12-a-day crossing guard job again, some doofus will count you as "Employed" in the national statistics purporting to prove that middle class Americans are nearly all working in this supposedly booming economy...