Confessions of a Crossing Guard

Anyone that knows me would be asking "What the heck are you doing being a crossing guard?" Good question.

Actually I am helping out a friend who works for a company that provides crossing guards. Lorraine(my wife) was doing it and then she got a great full time job and they needed someone to fill the spot. Nobody wanted this corner. Can't blame them.. it's busy and the drivers are nuts.

They thought I would be the perfect choice(sucker) since I was self employed(unemployed.. semi-retired, call it what you want). So.. I drive 20 minutes there and back 3 times a day to work two 30 minute shifts and one 60 minute shift. Hardly a money maker.. but I do care about kids.

The noon shift is easy. Most kids take a lunch.. it's a pretty quite 60 minutes. The morning and afternoon shift are pretty nuts with the drivers, especially if it is raining. What gets me is the people that are dropping off or picking up their kids from the school seem to have no regards for the people's kids who walk!

95% of the people that don't pay attention or don't care or are just nuts are from the same school as the kids that are walking.

I have about 6 instances where driver has paid no attention and 2 that were really close to hittiing kids and I had to jump in front of the cars and get their attention.

There are a lot of people the run red lights.. but they are always going through the intersection where kids are not crossing. It's the right hand and left hand turns that are the real problems.

Mostly male drivers run the red lights.

But all of the close call I have had are female drivers. I know because I stare them down. They seem almost oblivious to their surrounding, or really just don't care. When I yell, blow my whistle, jump in front of them, they are suprised to see me there. Even though, I have blown my whistle twice before and am standing in the middle of the intersection with a stop sign. They must have so much on their mind and so many things to do, that they are on auto pilot. It's really scary. I have felt like throwing my sign at them a couple times, but apparently that is not politically correct.

What I do is report their license plate to the local police if I can get the license plate number. Hopefully they police will call them and wake them up.

I'm only there until the end of June, but I will continue doing what I am doing.. there is a new sheriff in town! (Yes I do wear my cowboy hat some times)

R.