April - May 2002 Edition

Every Day Obstacle Course   By Jeanne Baratta     I value the lives of the children of Fair Lawn. I say this because everyday I see potential accidents near our schools. Our weekdays are quite hectic I know, but we must stop, we must slow down, we must think about the safety of our children!    I pass by 4 schools in the mornings and afternoons to take my children back and forth to school and sometimes I feel like I am on an obstacle course.    I am dodging cars that stop in the middle of the road to let their children out, I am always anticipating a child jumping out between cars to cross the street and I am straining to see cars coming round corners because my vision is blocked by illegally parked cars.    I know that part of the problem is due to a lack of parking near the schools. Our schools were built to be neighborhood schools, in a time when a family had one car for the breadwinner and Mom was usually at home to give us a kiss as we walked out the door to begin the short trek to school.    Times have surely changed, Mom and Dad share the breadwinner title and one or the other is charged with school pick-ups and drop-offs. Someone is always running late, we have an important meeting to get to, whatever, we are always rushing! It is imperative to remember though; this is not the time to rush! Take a minute and think of the horrible consequences if tragedy should strike. No one wants to think of these things, but sometimes we must to put things into perspective. I don’t know how I could live with myself if I harmed a child. How unimportant would that meeting be compared with the loss of a child? None of it would hold importance anymore. Your life would ever be changed in a split second.    I am a people watcher; I notice things that most probably wouldn’t.    It amazes me that the same person that would offer you the shirt off their back, volunteers for every committee at school, is the same person that will not let you merge into traffic, will cut you off in a minute for the last parking space!    My morning ulcer starts early, while I watch my teenager get on the school bus. I hold my breath as she crosses the street. The school bus flashes lights, safety arm is extended and the bus driver leans out the window, pleading with impatient commuters to stop. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. Luckily my daughter is pretty nimble and she can jump back on to the curb pretty fast. This is deplorable, and I think anyone not stopping for a school bus should be subject to the highest fines permissible and classes at traffic safety school.    Forrest School is the first school I pass in the mornings, there is probably the least amount of parking for parents here and the road is quite narrow. Parents park in the front of the school and also on the dead-end side streets behind the school. Parking signs are regularly ignored here.    There is a very good reason for the sign that says “No Parking from here to corner”. With cars parked on both sides of the street there is only enough room for one car to travel the road at a time. If you need to turn up 12th Street and cars are parked up to the corner, there is zero visibility, there is no way to see if another car is coming down the street. Add to that parents that are crossing their children between cars and it is a disaster waiting to happen. Please, take the time to walk your children to the crossing guard. Common courtesy is another thing that goes out the window around our schools.    Those dead-end streets behind Forrest School, I have a family member that lives there, some of the stories she tells me are actually so unbelievable that they are humorous! People routinely block resident’s driveways and go as far as to park right in others driveways. When asked to move, residents are looked upon as if they were the crazy ones; “But I am just dropping her off, it will only be a minute, what’s the big deal”.    The next school I pass is the High School, it’s not too bad here. What you need to remember though as a driver is that these are teenagers, they do not look before they cross the street. Teenagers have that whole “invincible” thing going on and I don’t think it’s cool too look both ways when you’re a teenager. As the driver you must remember that they have the right of way!   Next on my travels is Lyncrest School. This one is probably the best and I give most of the credit to their crossing guard. I don’t even know her name but she is tops in my book. Not only does she cross the children, but she directs traffic to boot!    My final destination is St. Anne School where I drop off my precious cargo. Mornings aren’t too bad here, but the afternoon pickup can be a nightmare! We are lucky that we have a parking lot in which to park, but not everyone can fit here and overflow goes onto the side streets. I am in awe of the people who get there late and find the best parking spaces, right in front of the school! Of course, there is no parking right in front of the school and about a trillion signs stating that!  Then of course there are those that have no need for a parking spot at all, they speed onto the lot and just stop in the flow of traffic and wait for their children to hop on in, then they see a long lost friend and need to chat for a while cars back up endlessly.    My biggest obstacle on my morning commute is just getting out of my driveway. I live on Fair Lawn Avenue and that regularly comes to a stand still in the morning. I pull out of my driveway head first, my blinker happily pointing to the right, yet I can wait up to 5 minutes for a kind soul to wave me into the inching traffic. Cars stop right in front of my driveway, I stare the drivers down thinking “you see me, I know you see me, why won’t you just let me in”, yet they do not waiver, they stare straight ahead, pretending that I do not exist, me and my giant bright red Mommy van. Sometimes I want to jump out of the car and ask them why they won’t let me in, but alas, I am still in my pajamas and don’t want to embarrass the kids!    Let’s see have I left anyone out? Oh yes, those shopping cart drivers in the grocery store. If there was anywhere we needed a traffic cop its in the produce aisle! Oh you know who you are, you block the aisle by leaving your cart in the middle so no one can go by in either direction. You try to cut me at the check out counter and then sheepishly say “Oh were you on line?”, no I was just waiting for the bus!    All kidding aside, let’s try, no lets go a bit further than trying, let’s make it a point to be more careful, more courteous, more compassionate for our fellow human beings and especially our most precious resource of all our children!   Note: Jeanne is also Fair Lawn's Kitchen Elf.