Walking in Germantown - thanks Google maps

Finally! I've often wanted to know how long the walk from school was.
I know it took me half an hour but I've been curious for a long time
now what the actual distance traveled was.

Mother gave me $.35 or $.45 cents (can't remember which it was) every
week for a bag of tokens (bus fare to and from school). Besides the
occasional babysitting job, one way of saving money was to walk home
from school every day. If you're quick with your math you know that
every other week I'd be able to pocket an extra week's bus fare.
High school started at 9th grade, so that was four years of healthy
walking. I'm sure I took the bus home from time to time, I just don't
remember doing it. I do remember walking to the bus stop on Wayne
Ave. in the mornings, picking up a friend along the way. After
graduation I'd walk across the street at the corner of Manheim and
Pulaski (in front of the church) to pick up the "H" bus and a couple
of transfers later I'd find myself coming out of a subway in center
city Philadelphia and walking a few short blocks to PNB. All in all
about an hour and a half to start work at 9:00.

Mother also gave me a weekly school lunch allowance, enough to cover
the full hot lunch, not just a sandwich. I always got the full hot
lunch. I remember trying the sandwich or whatever and found it
"lacking" in some way. I don't remember what my problem with the
menu was but, with the exception of maybe three tries at something
else, found myself always reverting to the hot lunch.

I used to keep about 5 envelopes on my dresser marked with things
like "church", "bus", "sweater", "wrap-around skirt", or whatever
the current must-have item was. I'd take babysitting money and
divide it up into the envelopes according to priority, those things
I had to have money for and those things I wanted money for.
Depending on my sense of urgency for any of my wants, I'd count
my change into those envelopes. I was always wanting something in
the way of clothes for school, so I never saved up for 45s - even
if it was the Beatles!

One of the biggest treats was spending $.25 to go see a movie. I
think matinees were "cost-effective" but still a rare event. From
time to time, either with a friend, or by myself I'd walk up to
Germantown Ave. There used to be a theater there right near the
intersection with Manheim St. It was a big deal to get permission
to go to a movie at night and I'm fairly sure I wasn't allowed to
do that before I was 14. Daytime movies started at 12. Going with
a friend was fun, but the last time I went, I went by myself to see
"The Fly". It was late and dark when I walked home, afraid, pumped
full of adrenaline, gritting my teeth through the rustle of leaves
that a breeze might have stirred, and afraid of every wall, fence,
or hedge I had to pass - absolutely sure that some mutated, deranged
murderer was lurking behind each one. That walk home was interminable.
It took me till I was a grown woman in my 30s, with three children
of my own, to finally get over my fear of the dark! Ah, yes, to get
rid of that fear I was prepared to die going up the steps one night
in Mickleton. My total willingness to die that night, instead of enduring
another night of fear, cured me.