Walking to and from school

I was talking about walking to Leaside Public school in my last post and there a couple of things that stand out in my memory; the beautiful yellow flowers on a bush beside the short bridge at the bottom of the hill, the old man offering me money, and the horrible storm that made it almost impossible to get up the hill.
The yellow flowers in the fall. Just thinking about them gives me calm. I have only come across these once, maybe twice in my lifetime since then. I just went off on a tangent to find the plant I loved so dearly as a child. Turns out it was a deciduous forsythia plant. Lovely! I am a sentimental old fool with tears in my eyes. I suppose because this is one of those split second moments in time when I was truly and completely deliriously happy.
Then there was the creepy guy who offered me money close to where my favourite flowers were. I have often wondered why I was so terrified by this man. I now understand that I have a gut reaction to people in general and there must have been something very wrong with him. I remember this overwhelming terror and running like the wind to get home.
There was another time though, when I accepted coins from a man in the park and then hid them in our room so our mother wouldn’t find them. I don’t remember that turning out well. As I recall there was quite the discussion about accepting money or candy from “strangers”, whatever the heck that is! Probably sent to my room again, though now I can see why!
I also remember walking to school with my sister one very stormy day and struggling to get up the hill. It’s a very steep hill covered in ice and we kept slipping back to where we started. My sister went back home probably in tears because we couldn’t get up the hill. I on the other hand persevered and eventually got up the hill quite possible with tears of frustration frozen on my face. My sister got a ride which must have taken a different route because I don’t remember getting picked up along the way or more likely I had already made it to school by the time my Dad returned home to drive her as my Mother didn’t drive.