Uphill, Both Ways

One of the standard grumpy old guy complaints includes something about walking to school in the snow uphill – both ways.

I have actually done that.

Let me elaborate. When I started freshman year at Manhattan College in Riverdale, I still lived near 226th Street and White Plains Road in the Bronx. As I was only 16 years old at the start of the semester, and as the minimum driving age in NYC was 17, I had three options to getting to class.

City buses would take me down to Fordham Road, where I’d transfer to another bus that would take me to school. Travel time: 90 minutes (without waiting.)

The subway would take me to 96th Street, where I could transfer to the 1 line and back up to school. Travel time: 2-1/2 hours, at least.

Walking up 233rd Street, cutting across Van Courtland Park, and on down to school. Travel time: 45 minutes or so for the 3 miles.

Being that I had an 8am class, and being that as a teenager I was averse to waking up in the morning, the only real option was walking.

Of course, the walk up 233rd Street was indeed up – the couple of miles or so was mostly one long uphill. The trek through the park was somewhat hilly, but beautiful in the winter mornings. The last bit from the park to the school was downhill most of the way, except for the last hill from Broadway and that killer triple batch of stairs to get to the class.

So, you see, on the occasion that it snowed I did in fact walk to school through the snow, uphill both ways.

Now get off my lawn.

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