The Newspaper Deliveryman.

The Newspaper Deliveryman. 

The Newspaper Deliveryman.

The newspaper dcliveryman delivers newspapers to us and many other houses in the neighborhood. I hear his motorcycle every morning when he comes to deliver the daily paper. He comes promptly at 6.30 every morning, rain or shine, unless something extraordinary prevents him from doing so. 

He is so regular and prompt that I do not need any alarm clock to wake up. At six-thirty, the neighbors' dogs start barking as he arrives and I know it is almost time to get up for school. 

Though he comes every day, I do not get to see him. I only pick up and read the newspaper he has left at the door. I only see him once a month when he comes to collect the bill. 

Promptly on the first of each month, at six-thirty in the evening, he shows up with his bills. This time he rings the door bell and I usually have to go and pay him. My mother normally gets the money ready one day earlier and asks me to pay him. 

He never smiles. He merely gives me the change if any, and goes off to the next house. It appears that his regular, almost regimental, rounds of newspaper delivery has made him behave like a robot. He is very efficient, very prompt and does not smile. That is certainly very robot-like. 

Nevertheless, I appreciate his reliable service. For one thing, I am never without the daily paper. Some of my friends complain that their newspaper deliverymen are very unreliable. Not so with mine, he is number one. 

A day in the life of a bus driver.

A day in the life of a bus driver. 

A day in the life of a bus driver.

The alarm rings. It is six o'clock. Mr. Kim gets up wearily. It is the start of another day ferrying school kids to and from school.

At six-thirty, after a hurried bath, Mr. Kim starts his old 22-seater bus and moves off. He goes along a regular route picking up children to send to various schools. By seven, all the regular children, except one who is ill, is on the bus. Mr. Kim drives carefully through the busy roads.

He stops at four different schools, dropping off some children at each. He plans his drive carefully so as to reach the last school by seven-thirty. Otherwise some children will be late for school and he gets the blame. 

At seven thirty-two, his bus is empty and the roads are less congested Most of the children are in the classrooms. Mr. Kim stops by at a stall to have his breakfast. 

Come eleven-thirty, he picks up other school children for the afternoon session. By twelve-thirty he has sent all the children to the schools satellite

At one o'clock he collects his first batch of children from a school. Then he proceeds to three other schools to collect the others. After collecting the children he sends them home. 

Mr. Kim has lunch at home and takes a nap afterwards. At three o'clock he cleans up the bus. 

At five in the evening, Mr. Kim goes on his last round of collecting the children from the schools. He safely sends them home by six thirty. Then Mr. Kim goes home, takes a bath, has dinner and watches television for a While before retiring to bed. Thus ends yet another day in the life of a bus driver. 

Something unexpected.

Something unexpected. 

The routine of following lesson after lesson can be very tiring. Recess time always seems so far away. The bell rings. One teacher leaves, another appears. What we need is a break from the monotony. 

One morning, we had a lesson as a matter of routine when I felt that it was going to be just another day of endless studying. After what seemed a long time the bell rang for the second period. The Mathematics teacher left. Next would be Geography with Mrs. Ellen. 

The short break between the going of one teacher and the coming of the next was when we had the opportunity to talk and have some fun. It usually lasted a minute or two, sometimes more. 

This time no teacher appeared even after five minutes. We were having a great time. Ten minutes, Mrs. Ellen still did not appear. Our monitor went out in search of her. A few minutes later, he returned to announce that Mrs. Ellen was absent. We cheered. This was unexpected, but it was welcome. 

So for forty minutes we literally fooled around. The monitor could do nothing. What a good time we had. The bell rang again. Forty minutes of fun seemed so short, but it was great while it lasted. 

Again no teacher appeared. It was another case of an absent teacher. We cheered even louder because it was a double-period which meant we were free until recess. 

Altogether we had one hundred and twenty minutes two hours of no lesson. It was unexpected of course and I have to say I enjoyed it very much. I would not mind having more of this unexpected thing.