Oh yeah? Back in MY day we walked 10 miles to school! Uphill! Both ways!
Back then a "little snowflake" was what we called our classmates who froze to death walking home from school in a blizzard!
Back then a "little snowflake" was what we called our classmates who froze to death walking home from school in a blizzard!
Here's a fifties school to get an idea: http://aromalefkadas.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/68.jpg
This is from around the fifties. The kids aren't doing yoga or something -- they really don't have shoes -- they usually had just an incredibly warn-out pair at most, which they wore as part of their "good outfit" (for going to important events, church, etc).
No school buses -- actually no highways between lots of rural villages until late 60s, and a single school (in the central/bigger village) catering also for 3-4 nearby villages in what could be a 10-20 km radius.
And yes, they also did that with snow.
The stories of our grandparents are stories that we would associate with a war-torn country in the third world if they happened today.