Old-Time Dancing

Audrey and Courtney cut-the-rug fantastic the other evening at the Coral Springs Chapel where old-fashioned dancing was being taught.

Belle's School's Fitness-Fair

Belle's school had a fun-fair with an emphasis on environmental conservation and personal fitness. She and some of her classmates sang a couple of songs, and then she and her friend Emily played on all of the several fun attractions. The video of the dancing is short, but I tried to capture a taste of Belle's rhythm and grace.

Back to School: the misadventures of Courtney and Belle

COURTNEY'S STORY, in her own words:


The bell rang, marking the end of my first day at South Plantation High School. I was very excited to get home and have a big glass of chocolate milk and lie on the big comfy couch, and tell my parents about my first day. That dream was soon crushed when I walked out to the bus loop and took a look at the white board to find out if my bus, 4204, had not arrived.

“Well, maybe they made a mistake and didn’t write it down” I said to my friend when I noticed that my bus number was not written in bold black numbers on the board. We walked out to where all the buses had parked and were waiting for their high school kids to finally meander their way to their bus. We walked up and down the two aisles of buses to not only find her bus, but to find out that the white board had not been mistaken, my bus was not here.

I walked angrily back across the bus loop, through the teachers parking lot, back to the white board, which looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades, to double check and make sure that my bus had not come. I found a bench facing the bus loop and I plopped down and hoped my bus would eventually show up.

At 3:50, one hour and ten minutes after school had ended, a bus came. I was sure that this was my bus I jumped to my feet, picked up my back pack and sauntered over to the bus. Of course you can probably guess what happened next, I realized that it was not my bus. By this time I had found someone who was riding the same bus as me and who was in the same position I was in. Both of us had no cell phone to call our parents and also had no clue where our bus was.

At 3:55 the tall administrator with the fuzzy gray beard and a business suit called out, “Anybody riding a bus that starts with the number 4 come and get on this bus.” He was pointing to the bus sitting in the middle of the bus loop. I and the other girl walked over and got on the bus and told the bus driver our address. He assured us he would get us home safely. There were about 15 other people on the bus, two of which had mental disabilities. The driver finally roared the bus alive and drove out of the school after about 2 minutes.

The first stop we had made was deep in the middle of a trailer park in a bad part of town. It was difficult getting there, due to all the pot holes and bumps we had to endure, but we had to drop off one of the disabled girls at her house. This girl was the only one on the bus who knew where she lived. We finally decoded her yelling, LEFT, RIGHT, and got to her trailer. Her mom was standing out side waiting for her as we inched in front of her house. Now that she was off the bus we had to go to another trailer park and drop off two other girls, but not at there houses, thank goodness.

After that stop we headed up to a big wealthy neighborhood called Plantation Acres. After that stop we made a couple more until we finally got to the neighborhood where the other disabled girl lived.

There was this boy on the bus who said that she lived in the same neighborhood as him and he would show us where she lived. He pointed out the house and went up and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. By this time it was 5:00, and I was supposed to be home at 3:30. After the 3^rd time he knocked the bus driver turned to the girl and asked if she lived here, she said no. “Great!” I thought as we were pulling out of the neighborhood, “my parents are probably freaking out wondering where I am, and we have to drop off this girl at her house, which we have no idea where it is!” The driver pulls out his handy walkie-talkie and somehow finds out what neighborhood she lives in, but he forgot to ask about one small detail -- what is her address! There were seven of us left on the bus, exhausted, hot, and sweaty. We had to go back to the neighborhood that we were just in previously, and try to find her house. I had been awake since 4:30 this morning and hadn’t eaten since 11:30 and was very miserable. After the 3^rd time of circling the neighborhood, we found her mom on the sidewalk sweat combined with tears dripping down her face onto the paper and cell phone in her hands. FINALLY!!!!!! She was dropped off and we headed out to the main road. We made two more stops and 4 people got off, now there were 3 of us left. The other girl and I lived about 5 minutes away, while the 3^rd girl lived 15 minutes away. He said that he would drop the 3^rd girl off and then circle around and drop us off next. We agreed even though we didn’t understand his thinking. We dropped her off and were then stuck in bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic back to our neighborhood.

After a minute or so of waiting in traffic the driver says “well, they just called me and they want me to pick up Seminole Middle, so I will pick them up and then drop you guys off at the same time.” We were so annoyed, but he’s the driver and he knows what he’s doing (or so we thought). Around 5:30 a lady was talking on the intercom “Mr. Williams, do you have a Courtney Frahm on your bus?”

Yes, that’s how I learned that my parents were down at the bus station and he was now dropping me off there. I finally got to my parents at about 6:00-ish and we were heading out to eat at our favorite pizzeria “Jacaranda”. After hearing all their panicking and how glad they were to see me I finally got a big glass of Sprite, and sat in a comfy chair at the Jacaranda Restraunt and told them all about my day.

The funny thing about this story was that the next day I found out that my bus had been at the school when that bell rang, but it was on the opposite side of school in a different bus loop. This could have all been avoided if I had walked 1 minute to the other side of school and gotten on my bus. As a result to this story I got a cell phone, so every cloud has a silver lining!

BELLE'S BUSING BLUNDERS:
Belle's bus didn't come to pick her up on the first day, so I eventually drove her along with four of the high schoolers that ride the same bus. When the bus was a no-show on the second day, leaving 16 kids of all ages stranded, I called the transportation center (I was on close terms with busing administrators after having gone through Courtney's adventure the night before). They radioed the bus and made the driver return for us. It seems that she had come-and-gone long before the scheduled time. Her supervisor assured me that it would not happen again and since then we have had no complaints about the bus. Belle likes her afternoon bus better than the morning bus, though, because it is air-conditioned and she has more friends her own age that ride with her.

Both Courtney and Belle are so happy about their schools that it is almost suspicious! But they both report many friends, pleasant teachers, and academic success (so far).