Jean Garboden - Walking on the Left side of the Road
"My name is Jean Garboden. I was born December 19, 1944 in Eugene Oregon. Today is December 10, 2012, and I am in Boulder City Nevada. I am going to tell you a story.
I going to tell you a story when I was a little girl. When I was 5 years old, I lived in Albuquerque New Mexico, and I had started my first day of school. I thought I was ‘all that’. I was so grown up. I had my two little brothers at home, and I was off to school. I remember my address It was 3101 Isleta Blvd. My school was Barcelona Elementary School. I walked about a mile and half to school every day, and that was common, even for a little 5-year-old back then.
I remember my teacher’s name was Mrs. Gallagher, and the Principal’s name was Mrs. Ticknor. Every evening right before we went home from school, Mrs. Ticknor – this was in 1950 – Mrs. Ticknor would make an announcement over the intercom. She would announce something for all of us students. I remember this day in particular, she announced, “Today, when you walk home from school, always walk on the left-hand side of the road.” Well I was the oldest child, so I always liked to do things right, and I was very much a rule follower. So, when school got out, I went out and I started walking on the left-hand side of the road.
Pretty soon the kids started yelling at me, “Jeannie, Jeannie, you are on the WRONG side of the road.” I said, “No, I am not! Mrs. Ticknor said to walk on the left-hand side of the road, and I am walking there.”
They said, “No you are not!” I didn’t care if the rest of those kids…they were doing the wrong thing - I was going to do the RIGHT thing. So, I kept walking on MY side of the road. Pretty soon a car came up behind me, honked it’s horn, and I turned around – Oh! It was Mrs. Ticknor! She said, “Jeannie, Jeannie, come here.” I ran to the window, and she said, “Jeannie, you are on the wrong side of the road.” Oh, I was devastated. I started crying, and I walked to the other side of the road.
But you know what I learned. I had to learn that lesson a lot of times in my life, because there were so many times in my life when I was absolutely, positively sure I was right! And I was absolutely, Positively wrong. So that lesson began then, in the next 65 years I had to learn that lesson over and over!"
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