That’s it, summer is well and truly over. The young have returned to school and parents are variously heaving sighs of relief or fretting about those youngsters starting new scholastic adventures.
I no longer have children of school age and my grandchildren have a way to go before they join the throng of students. Even so, I am perfectly well aware that the school term has begun because the roads are a nightmare.
The five mile drive to work has taken me around ten minutes, every day for the past six weeks. Rush hour has been a misnomer…it has been more of a gentle meander on roads that were a pleasure to drive. Today it took half an hour and was a very different story.
Thirty minutes may not be bad in terms of a commute, but nose to tail traffic crawling at snail’s pace for miles makes it unpleasant. Unless we have a town full of car-owning seventeen year olds starting school this week, I don’t think we can blame the children. Nor can they all be parents on the school run, as the majority of cars held only their driver and it was too early for children to have been dropped off already.
Bearing in mind that I pass bus-loads of youngsters and a hundred or so of them walking to school every day, I am at a loss to know where all these extra cars have come from. It is a mystery that bugs me every time the schools reopen after a holiday. Few parents get a six week holiday to coincide with that of their children, so who on earth are they…where have they all been for the summer… and why did they all come out to play at half past seven this morning?
Though, it must be said, that there is no playing on the roads…driving has suddenly become a very serious business again. Throughout the school holidays, courtesy could be observed…with drivers giving way to each other, leaving space between cars, even driving at sensible speeds! This morning? Mayhem.
It is one of those seemingly unanswerable mysteries. Like where do the flies come from is a hermetically sealed room? Or spiders that apparently do not exist when you go round the house with the hoover and the feather duster. Yet as soon as you snuggle beneath the duvet, an eight-legged Godzilla will materialise on the ceiling above the bed.
Some things will always remain mysteries. In general terms, I am quite glad about that. I like to know there are unanswered questions to ponder, just as much as I love the sense of wonder at a universe whose secrets remain beyond our understanding. September traffic is right up there with the Bermuda Triangle or the mouse in the washing machine* as far as I am concerned.
*That’s a whole other story….
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Hmm.. interesting thought… maybe there are single or childless couples who enjoy walking to work in the holidays and love a traffic jam in the term, so decided to add to it then!
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It is a bit weird…
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You’re making me wonder now!
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I’ve wondered for years…it akes little sense…
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Puzzling…
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Pingback: Back to bedlam – The Militant Negro™
Thank you 🙂
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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We live on a main road, and have always wondered about the cars that thunder past all day long. Why are they not at work? And always more of them in term time…
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It really is strange how the roads change as soon as the kids are back at school…and they seem to stay that way all day.
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Always wondered whether main roads are where parallel universes collide and only 1 in 4 is from our universe …the rest are from others and when they exit the major roads then simply disappear…
Maybe not.
Who knows .
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That would make more sense than many theries I have come up with 😉
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I know what you mean. When we visit my Mum, we have to take into account school runs on the way home as we are bound to hit them somewhere, which is why we only stay a couple of hours.
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It is odd though, the volume of traffic seems to bear no relation to the schools, yet it always coincides with school times.
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You have no idea how many parents hop in their cars to follow the school bus. Really. When they finally arrive at my school with their preschooler, they retell how they “had to” do this. I know, I shake my head. That’s where all the cars come from.
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Every day??
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Just the first week of school.
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Phew!
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No kidding!
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Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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Thank you 🙂
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A very weird happening indeed, Sue. Speaking of spiders, we are inundated with them just now, the big Esmeralda ones. Dante caught one of the stairs the other night, I got it in a tumbler and put it outside but in the morning there was a dried husk of a spider leg on the stairs. oh, ye gods. xxx
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I keep finding spiders and beetles… which is a bit unfortunate as I tend to go barefoot… xxx
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oh no, not good. xxx
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Not for them or me… xx
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Tuesday morning I drove out of my drive and first thought was Summer is over. Thousands of cars. Where did they come from? Or more accurately where have they been?
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That’s what got me too 🙂
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Perhaps they’ve been on holidays too. 🙂
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All summer??
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Umm … 🙂
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Heh 😀
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I do love a good mystery! 😉
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This one comes back every year 🙂
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
REMINDS ME OF THE SHOPPING TRAFFIC THESE DAYS—THE LATER THE HEAVIER! 😀 THANKS, SUE!
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That’s why I seldom go shopping 😉
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Oh yeah. Gotcha! 🙂
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