Then there was the line to get on the bus our neighborhood.

For some reason it was a badge of damned honor to get on the bus first. Maybe it's because Michigan Winters are cold and the bus was at least luke warm. The bus stop varied from year to year based on the whims of some administrator and which way the bus was to proceed through my neighborhood. But people would line up early just to be FIRST! Or, in the case of the pain in the ass girls down the street, who could see the bus stop from their house, they would run out and plop their book bag down to be first and then run back inside. This was likely to earn their bags a kick out of place by the next person who appeared at the stop.

Yes, your bag determined boarding order. Because your parents would kick you out of the house 20 minutes before the bus arrived because Mom just wanted some peace and quiet to go with Good Morning America. Once your bag was in line, and you didn't go hide inside from the elements like a sissy, you were free to engage in spirited games of marbles or tag. Marbles had itself own Lord of Flies like set of rules.

There was a year younger than me in the neighborhood named Shane. We called him Shane the Pain. He's probably still an asshole.

Minus the games, this kind of repeated itself for the separate busings of K-6 and then 7-12. Luckily for me, I lived only a mile from the high school and was considered within walking distance. Therefore, no one in my neighborhood was permitted to board the bus. It could be pouring down rain and the bus would drive right past you.

But minus those days, I'm not sad that I didn't have to ride it.

We didn't have a McDonald's in our town until 1989. Red Lobster...shit.