In an earlier post about school buses, the subject of School Safety Patrols – commonly known as “Patrols” or “Patrollers” – came up. Given that Patrols were a fixture of my mid/late 20th Century youth as well as their clear connection to automobile culture, it was interesting to me that this topic had not been addressed by another CC article.
So let’s cross that potential topic off the list. We were all kids once, and most of us went to one manner of school or another, so there’s a good chance that there are school safety patrols existing somewhere in our pasts. If not that, then I will note that my research for this article has turned up an amazing number of photographs and videos that contain all sorts of good car-spotting; and even a few trucks and buses and some petroliana. There’s something here for everyone.
It’s probably good to get a few basic facts straight before going any farther. First, Patrols — and I’m going to go with that term because it’s the one that was used in all of the schools of my youth. We never called them “Patrollers” as that just sounds kind of creepy — are still very much a thing in schools around the U.S.. For reasons that we’ll touch upon later, the program is perhaps a bit smaller than at times in the past, but one can still access a wealth of information from their local AAA club about how to start and operate a Patrol program in their school or district. Many schools do.
I’ll also note that for the most part, I am considering School Safety Patrols in the U.S. – they apparently exist in “over 30 other countries”. Further, I’m mostly discussing those Patrol programs sponsored and encouraged by AAA as a component of their school safety program.
AAA’s school safety programs are historically a part of the organization’s broad interest in pedestrian safety.
AAA’s initiatives around all manner of automobile-related issues really deserve a fully separate article as there are so many of these programs that go well beyond coming to fix your flat tire or jump-start cars. For example, in the 1940s and 50s, AAA regularly made news announcing winners in its annual contest to see which cities’ drivers ran down and killed the fewest pedestrians each year. It’s unclear as to when this contest (that’s what they called it) ceased, but clear records of its existence vanish by the mid-1950s.
As far as school transportation safety programs are concerned, AAA launched its “School’s Open – Drive Carefully” program in 1946. That initiative, which continues to this day, featured both Patrols…
…and school buses.
I distinctly recall a number of years where these school bus-shaped bumper stickers were distributed to my class each fall. Naturally, I was a huge fan of these and probably still have a few in boxes deep in the archives.
Organizations other than AAA have sponsored student-staffed school safety programs. The “TPA” – or Travelers Protection Association (apparently no apostrophe required because it’s an association more for than of “travelers”) — is one. TPA is the sponsor of the at one time ubiquitous “Watch That Child” campaign.
St. Mary’s School – Cape Girardeau, MO – Safety Patrol
TPA also sponsored Patrols, as the photo above shows Patrols in Missouri wearing TPA’s distinctive radioactivity-like logo in the early 1960s.
St. Mary’s School Safety Patrol – Sherer’s Mobil Service Station, Cape Girardeau, MO.
They were really into the crossing flags in Cape Girardeau.
Various city police departments have been Patrol sponsors as well. In fact, St. Paul, MN lays claim to having organized one of the first safety patrol programs in the nation in 1920. The St. Paul “School Police” were created by the city’s police department and in its initial year recruited 750 public and parochial school students.
So serious, so young.
These students were initially charged with actually directing traffic. It seems that once the St. Paul police turned oversight of the program to the nuns in the local parochial school system, literal policing duties faded and student safety patrols were instead focused on guarding pedestrians. This is how the Patrol program works to this day.
This Jam Handy film shows how Patrols operated in 1951 in (what turns out to be) Huntington Woods, Michigan. As most readers interested in automotive history likely know, Jam Handy Productions produced thousands of educational and corporate films, many like this one, for Chevrolet. It was frequently the case that the films used locations local to Detroit. A bit of street sign sleuthing (note the location at Borgman and Wyoming at 11:30) shows that this was filmed in Huntington Woods and actually on location at what is Burton Elementary school (built in 1925, and still in use as a K-5 school). Perhaps Jimmy and Billy’s grandchildren now walk the corners that Jimmy patrolled so well.
One of the things that impresses me when watching the Jam Handy/Chevrolet film about patrols is the rigor and seriousness with which these adolescent boys – and later, girls – went about their duties. You can see the same sort of thing in historic photos of Patrols such as the one above (those boys look quite nautical…in Nebraska) and in other pictures I’ve found for this article.
Columbia County (FL) School District
AAA Promotional Photo
Even though it’s the modern style for children to smile a lot more in photos than was the case in the oh-so-serious past, you can still tell that there’s something special about the responsibility that these students carry.
To get a better sense of just what motivates a 5th grader (that’s the traditional age when students enter into the Patrol program) to want to be a Patrol, I recently spoke to the only friend I have who was a Patrol. Her tenure was in my childhood suburb (well, one of them) outside of Washington, DC. She confirms that what attracted her to the Patrols was the opportunity to take responsibility and to contribute tangibly to a positive environment in her school. Somehow, all of that was also wrapped up, literally, in the Patrol uniform…that is the traditional orange sash (which is now yellow). In fact, back in her/my day the uniform and badging changed as one went from “Patrol in training” to full Patrol. She reports that there was a plain white belt that trainees wore for a year before graduating to the official bright orange belt.
These belts, by the way are known as “Sam Browne Belts”. This is something that you probably already know if you’ve spent time in any branch of the military where such a belt is part of the uniform. They are also seemingly part of the uniform for some state police officers (e.g., Massachusetts). It is said that one of the contributions that the St. Paul police made to that “first” Patrol effort in 1920 was to make the Sam Browne Belt part of the School Safety Patrol uniform.
As is often the case with uniforms, there are routinized ways of taking care of these items. In the case of Patrol belts, there’s apparently some ritual around properly folding them. My friend reports that one of the bummers related to the white canvas patrol-in-training belt was that it was difficult to fold. Folding the belts still seems to be a challenge for modern Patrols.
Fortunately, now we have YouTube and parents who are willing to learn how to fold their kids’ belts.
Another evolutionary carryover from actual highway police officers to student safety patrols is badging.
I have to say that it was the badge that truly attracted my attention as a child. While like my friend, I too may have been attracted by the opportunity to take (and be recognized for taking) responsibility in my community, I really was after the chance to wear the badge…and the orange belt.
http://www.badgeman50.com/id8.html
A quick tour around the Web indicates that Patrol badges came in many varieties indicating a range of ranks among the Patrols. I recall that there was some kind of annual awards/badging ceremony in most schools where Patrols were advanced to the next level of the program. This is something that in my schools in both MD and NC typically occurred as a full school assembly where we all got to had to watch the ceremony. I’m sure that just added to the Patrols’ sense of honor and responsibility. And for those of us – like me – who were eager to do something that would allow us to stand out among our peers, the whole procedure was enthralling.
Badges are still a Patrol thing, although nowadays the shape of the badge is less evocative of police than Starfleet…or perhaps the accordance of special honors at Mazda headquarters (Zoom Zoom). If I were a kid today, I might like that even more.
In addition to crossing duties, Patrols have also traditionally operated as “bus patrols” who ride the bus and then “assist the driver” in helping students safely cross the street at bus stops.
AAA Promotional Photo
Nowadays, with relatively few children walking to school, patrols have taken a role in some districts of helping students board buses at the beginning and end of the school day.
In 2021, AAA celebrated the 100th anniversary of its School Safety Patrol program. This was a big deal for AAA and occasioned a number of promotional articles reviewing the history of the program, its supposed benefits (measured by “reduced” student pedestrian deaths…although I’m a bit skeptical of the scientific rigor of these supposed studies), and significantly, notation of the many famous individuals who were Patrols in their youth. You can find these lists online, but even a brief review is pretty impressive. Three US Presidents (Carter, Clinton, and Biden) and five US Supreme Court justices ranging from Warren Burger to Stephen Breyer to Clarence Thomas were AAA Patrols. It impresses me that Thomas (born in 1948 in Georgia) served as a Patrol during a time when he and his parents would have been prohibited from joining the AAA auto club. During Jim Crow, AAA clubs barred African Americans as members and therefore contributed to the rise of the famous Green Book Travel guides. Oh, and on a separate automobile-related note, Lee Iacocca was a Patrol in the 1930s in Pennsylvania.
So my friend the former Patrol was definitely on to something about the responsibility. It seems that there’s definitely a strand of – as she put it – wanting to contribute to the environment around her in school. If I had to identify a common theme among those varied famous folks who were Patrols, a desire to contribute responsibly to society might be it. My friend isn’t on the Supreme Court, likely to become President, or even an astronaut (Mary Ellen Weber, Bedford, OH and Patrol somewhere around 1974), but she’s definitely and notably in a field that connects to the public good/service.
OK, high minded values aside, I have to note that one other feature of Patrols – fitting given the fact that if nothing else they were elementary and Jr. High student activities/clubs – is that they featured field trips. My friend noted an annual Patrol trip to the county fair featuring free hot dogs, fries and Cokes. I going to guess that there might have been some amount of parading done there.
Brunswick, MD Patrol parade, early 1960s.
It might have been even better to be a Patrol not based in the DC area as for years AAA hosted an annual national meeting for Patrols in Washington.
More parading. DC, Constitution Avenue, early 1950s.
The big DC Patrol parades seem to have peaked around the time of the Patrols’ 50th Anniversary in 1952.
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_1980.2493.5025
For its 50th anniversary, the Patrol program even managed to score issuance of a commemorative U.S. postage stamp (replete with what I believe are fantasy automobiles). The 100th anniversary in 2021 did not occasion a stamp or I would guess much of the civic activity associated with the 50th anniversary. As stated, the Patrol program is still thriving and in some districts – such as my old one in Maryland, where the district website has a whole page devoted to the Patrol program — the program still functions much as it did when I was a child and for half a century before. In Montgomery County, there are apparently still “Bus Patrols” who ride the bus and hop out with a flag to signal traffic just like they did when I was a kid. There are also Patrols at intersections to guide the “walkers”. Nevertheless, I suspect that the Montgomery County experience is becoming increasingly anomalous. First, in many school districts, the number of walkers has steadily declined as more and more elementary and middle school kids are picked up from school to attend various after-school enrichment programs (I’m looking at you, Kumon and after-school STEM/Coding/Robotics centers). Also, there’s the not-unrelated fact that many children nowadays need an extra nudge to engage in any “real world” activities that go beyond what they can do in the virtual space. Anything that requires the extra parental nudge is always going to be a reach across the broad swath of the population.
Finally, go back and watch that Chevrolet/Jam Handy film again. Try to get past the stilted dialog, wardrobe, and the black & whiteness of the whole thing and think about what those kids are saying at about the 11 minute mark.
[Jimmy Adams the Exemplary Patrol] Look Billy, would you mind waiting for my “Go” signal before you cross the street?
[Billy Jones the Universal Bad Example] Naaaaah. I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do!
[Jimmy] That’s just what you DO need!
And then pretty much the rest of the film is about Jimmy (Gallant) demonstrating to Billy (Goofus), and Billy eventually coming around to the fact that of course Jimmy the Patrol was right. Avoid Authority — Authority is basically Jimmy’s middle name — and nearly get killed (or worse…this linked video from Louisiana, by the way, is totally excellent for early 1970s car-spotting!). The moral of the story is that this is what the person who rejects helpful Authority can expect.
That sets up a significant difference between our past and our present. There really isn’t a more perfect demonstration of how sociocultural sensibilities have changed in the past 50 years than that interchange. For better or for worse. Something to think about, and to discuss.
Still, I believe in the future, and by definition, the future is in the children. As long as there seem to be kids who come for the badge (and the hot dogs/fries/Coke) but leave with the responsibility, there’s hope that someone at ground-zero is looking after and finding some way to influence the safety of their fellow human pedestrian.
In the words of the great Jimmy Adams, “Walk! Don’t run!”
Yes, I was a safety patroller in 5 th grade and a Lieutenant in 6 th grade back in the 50s in the mid-west. Rain, Snow or Sun we where at intersections in the mornings before school making sure the kids crossed safely. The school would provide us hot chocolate on freezing days.
Near and dear, Jeff, near and dear. I was elected* Safety Patrol captain in the 5th grade, and the lieutenants and I would assign duties each week. (*I’ve always wondered if my teacher just told us that I’d won the election and chose me anyway…my elementary school studiousness had not yet been replaced by the “screw it” apathy of my middle school and early high school years.)
Anyway, we were excused from class for as long as it would take to assign positions, and there were certain jobs the kids HATED. Nobody wanted to work the “Boring Corner,” as we called it, for obvious reason. I enjoyed being “Rover,” because I have a hard time sitting still and sticking around during things like meetings, even today. There’s a reason I’m rarely chosen for leadership positions (except for Safety Patrol). 🙂
Another fun job for our “patrols” was flag duty. We raised and lowered it each day, something most establishments don’t seem to do, as evidenced by the tattered flags I see flying everywhere. Good times, and we even had “AAA” ponchos in bright orange for rainy days. I’m fairly certain I absconded with a belt and badge when I was done with the 5th grade. I wonder if it’s still in my parents’ basement.
Thanks Aaron! Yes, teachers have a way of rigging things like that 🙂 Probably not the best example in terms of the democratic process, but it works. And when you’re hanging out with 5th graders all day, your life hangs on “it works”.
Thanks for the memory about flag duty! I do recall that in most of my schools, the Patrols did that too. I think in some schools we had Boy Scouts around, and they did it. But it was usually the Patrols.
I agree ~ the future is always in the children .
I’m old and I got the ‘question authority’ message loud and clear much to the dismay of my parents and many many others .
-Nate
Nate, I’ve been thinking about your comment, and I guess as someone who also has spent a lot of my life absorbing the “question authority” mantra I wanted to offer a bit of a clarification to how I wrapped up the article.
I think that learning to question authority is an essential skill for people to obtain. Put in the context of learning skills, I would place learning how to question authority as a “critical thinking skill”. I am a lifelong proponent of teaching critical thinking, and would go so far as to say that if there’s one thing that children should come away from K-12 education with it’s a strong set of critical thinking skills.
But one aspect of critical thinking is to be able to discern when it’s important to accept that something is in ones own good and that often other people know more than you do about certain things…and that learning how to work with – cooperate with – others is to everyone’s benefit (including your own). This is why we in education often speak of critical thinking skills and cooperative/collaborative learning skills as joined concepts.
So my point is that always questioning authority is as bad as never questioning it; and learning where to place ones actions at any given time along that spectrum is essential. Some of this might come with age, but some of it can be taught and practiced among children. In the case of learning to be safe – whether for example as a pedestrian or a driver — is about being able to judge when it’s wise to defer to others. At it’s most basic level, that’s authority.
And so sometimes – as in the case of learning to listen to the crossing guard – it’s appropriate to accept authority. In the Jam Handy film, Billy learns that Jimmy’s authority is well-placed and earned. Learning that might be less black and white than the film simplifies…but I still think there’s something to that.
Well put Sir ;
My parents weren’t much interested or capable at parenting, M.O. obviously but you’re dean bang on with your thoughts here .
Many in positions of authority simply misuse it to be boss .
-Nate
Something tells me that Barney Fife got his start in a program like this.
Indeed. Barney is Goofus if Goofus decided to gave a crap and tried to be Gallant.
I recall seeing some of the AAA signs and the bus-shaped stickers, but didn’t know about the Patrols. In my childhood hometown, where the vast majority of kids walked to school, adult crossing guards were stationed at strategic locations before and after school. They were all older folks, perhaps retired.
I don’t know if it is related to the AAA campaigns, but there is a sand and gravel operation around here with the slogan “watch that child” on the back of its concrete mixers, though, in thinking about it, I’m not sure I have seen any lately.
I’m also recalling a trucking company with the slogan “behind a rolling ball is a running child” or something quite similar, on its trucks.
I looked online a little, didn’t see any information about either of these.
That’s not from AAA but rather that TPA group I mention in the article. That’s why you see the “Watch That Child” sticker on the front of the Overnight Express truck in the photo. TPA’s child safety campaign seemed to particularly target large commercial transportation companies.
That “Behind a Rolling Ball Comes a Running Child” is a slogan painted on Crystal Freight Lines’ trucks. I’ve seen that many times. I’ve always found it rather chilling…so I guess it’s effective.
Great historical sleuthing Jeff! That slogan about the rolling ball being followed by a child is weird. Can you imagine the folks that dreamed up the advocacy for safety that far back? And I have not had a chance to check out the videos linked to yet, but their approach is equally dated if Billy winds up in trouble. Thanks for the reflections!
In the early 1960’s the Massachusetts safety inspection stickers had “beware the bouncing ball ~ a Child is sure to follow” printed in the inside portion so you could read it from inside the car as they were required to be glued to the right lower corner of the windshield .
That’s the only one I remember but they changed it every year IIRC .
-Nate
As I mentioned in your earlier school bus article, both of my daughters did Patrol duty when they were in 5th grade. Oddly, I’d never heard of the program before, and thought it was just an isolated program that the school had put together. Only later did I learn it was AAA-related, but until now I hadn’t realized just how widespread it was.
My girls enjoyed their patrol duties, and eagerly volunteered because the patrol jobs actually seemed important. The patrols helped out in the morning with parent drop-offs and in the afternoon with pick-ups. The 5th grade patrols directed traffic in the highly choreographed way that pickup lines operate these days (they all have their own quirks). At their school, patrols also monitored the interior hallways in the morning, which was really a dreadful job. My younger daughter got assigned to patrolling the 4th grade hallway in the mornings, which was miserable since 4th graders are old enough to be obnoxious, and most of them were bigger than her anyway. But her afternoon job was fun, since she got to operate the megaphone in the pick-up line. That made up for 4th grade hall duty.
There were Bus Patrols at their school too, and I think they helped the bus driver by making sure kids didn’t stand up, etc.
It was a great program – I don’t know if the school still does it though.
Anyway, below is a picture of one of my daughters from a few years ago in her traffic-directing role:
That’s great Eric! If I’m not mistaken, you’re in the DC-metro (more or less) area? What I found through my research is that the Patrol program in that area seems to be thriving as big as it ever was…which seems to be better than other parts of the country. Here in New England, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Patrol. Certainly not in my own town’s district. Which is kind of too bad since I would have loved to “suggest” it to one of my kids.
It’s interesting that you still have bus Patrols who ride the buses. That’s apparently still the case in Montgomery County as well.
Yes, we’re in Northern Virginia – and I suppose it’s the regionality that kept me from knowing about Patrols earlier. I’m not aware of any school that had this sort of program where I grew up.
I was a patrol crossing guard in Catonsville back in 1964-66 and we wore white belts with badges. I have no idea if they said AAA on them or not. That picture of the boys marching on Constitution Ave. immediately brought an uncomfortable thought the instant I saw it and couldn’t get it out of my mind.
Back in my younger daze, I was a JPO (Junior police officer), Boy I could feel the power!!!
When I was in the 4th grade I was invited to train to be a patrol boy, as we called them. I got the white belt that year, and then the orange in the 5th and 6th. We were in South Bend, Indiana, which is relatively close to Chicago, so our patrol program came through the Chicago Motor Club. Our badge was actually labeled as a “service award,” and each subsequent year you were a patrol boy you got a bar to link to the badge that read “2 Years” and “3 Years.” I might have mine around here someplace still, but here’s an image of one that I bogarted off the Internet.
I was Captain in the 6th grade; we didn’t get a special badge for that. There might have been a black band I got to wrap around my belt above the badge, but after this many years my memory isn’t perfectly clear on that.
Jim, I’m amazed at the variety in the badges that I’ve seen. I will say that it’s kind of too bad that the Chicago Motor Club didn’t manage to come up with shiny ones for you guys. Like I said, the shiny badge seemed to me to be 1/2 the fun.
Oh, wow, I haven’t thought about this in many years. I sure remember it (late-1950s-into-1960s), and the belts and badges, but am unsure whether I was a participant, or even if one volunteered or was selected, etc. Fun to think of it all again today—-and to learn about the revised badge, whenever that happened.
I see eBay has plenty of photos and badges: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=%22safety+patrol%22+photo&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=%22safety+patrol%22&_osacat=0
Paul I was what we called then a “Safety” at Towson Elementary, patrolling the corner at Allegheny and Central Aves in front of the “old” Towson Elementary building that was next door to the “new” 1930s building that was originally Towson High School. I started school in the old building in 1st grade of Fall 1956 but we transferred to the “new” one at the beginning of 2nd grade. The “old’ building (complete with cloak-rooms) I started in then become offices for the Balto Co. Board of Ed.
We “Safeties” got white patrol belts with badges, I don’t believe anyone ever had orange or other colored ones. As Central was 1 Way all the busses and cars came past “my” corner to the drop-off up the block on the left side. I don’t remember much about it now, but there were no big incidents, however one time I stopped a new kid who carried a trombone case from jaywalking across, and it turned out he’d moved down from LI, and later became my best friend. His aeronautical-engineer father at Martin-Marietta drove a SAAB 93, the first one I ever saw!
At my elementary school in suburban Pittsburgh they were known as Safeties too. Glad I’m not the only one remembering them as such! I believe all the belts were orange, but it was 50 years ago
I participated in the program in the late 1960s. Here in Upper Darby, PA we were called “safeties.” Adult crossing guards handled the street crossings. Safeties mainly held doors open during opening, closing, and fire drills. There was some social cachet attached to being a safety as only the better – and better behaved – students were chosen. I enjoyed wearing the white sash and the badge. Funny since by the end of 6th grade I was growing my hair long and morphing into the anti-authoritarian freak musician type that I am to this day.
Have to make a correction – the school building, and bus and car drop-off in front of it, were on the Right side of Central Ave, not the Left. On the Left side across from the building was the playground, with Joppa Rd along the N side of it.
I was one in fifth grade. Orange reflective belt. Another duty was making sure the sidewalk to the school was shoveled, free of snow and ice. It was nice because we got out of the last class 15 minutes early.
On the first day in sixth grade the just-promoted “captain” treated us like a drill sergeant would treat new Army recruits so I quit on the spot. That year the teacher in charge of the safety patrol was a militaristic a**hole and of course he picked a mini dictator for captain.
Yeah, that sure seems like you stumbled into the dark side of the Patrols.
And making kids keep the sidewalk clear just kind of seems abusive. Bummer.
I wasn’t clear. A school district crew would shovel the walks. We would just keep an eye on it and clean up icy spots.
Hah, I hadn’t thought about safety patrol in decades. I wasn’t one, being probable ADHD I wasn’t nearly earnest enough for such a task.
As I recall most were helpful, a few were annoying. I was bussed about 5 miles to school and one of their tasks was to keep us from being too rowdy on the bus.
I just have a hard time imagining how any kid nowadays could keep order on a school bus. That’s really what I was getting at in that whole bit at the end re. authority. I just don’t think that it’s in the current zeitgeist for a kid to stand up to his/her peers that way.
But maybe I’m wrong. (which would be good, IMO)
The school dstrct, the bus company, the kid, would all be sued for being discriminatory, racially profiling, yada yada.. in the first bus trip.
IIRC, in the late ‘60s, our Southern California safety patrol-kids wore bright red sweaters and a big white belt. They each had a long metal pole with a “stop” sign at the end, which they extended into the big local two-lane main drag, at an intersection with no stoplights or stop signs.
The belts had fittings akin to the ones used by parade flag-bearers, where the end of the stop sign pole could insert into the fitting to help the kids stabilize the long poles.
A city motorcycle cop (“Officer Bob”) stood by, highly visible and ready to go, if a driver ignored the safety patrol. He would also indicate to the patrol-kids, with a loud whistle, when the stop signs should be lowered or raised. It all worked out just fine.
Another veteran of the Safety Patrol here. My grade school went through Grade 6, so I think only 6th graders got the job (if I am remembering accurately). We got orange belts, but I don’t recall any badges and I know we had no signs. I mostly remember it as a golden opportunity for car spotting.
I’ve not found any recollections of students being Patrols after Grade 6, so I think your recollection is correct in terms of it ending with Elementary school.
Which really means that the whole program was one that was about peers helping (slightly younger) peers. That IMO is kind of neat. You’d sort of expect that the idea was for older students (e.g., Jr. High or High School students) to help or watch out for younger kids…but it’s not really.
Excellent point about the car spotting!
We never had this, adult crossing guards instead.
We mostly did as well. My mom’s friend was one for a good twenty-twenty two years.
I hadn’t thought about this subject in a long time; nice article!
I was a patrol boy (as we called them) in the 4th grade (1961-62) at my elementary school. (That was the highest grade level at that particular school; for 5th and 6th grades, I rode the bus to a different school.)
Our belts were white only, but we did have the shiny badges and yellow raincoats for bad weather. No stop signs or flags though.
At my crosswalk, we got a thrill every morning as a man driving by in a 1961 Dodge would give us a salute!
Thanks! Yes, the raincoats. I’d forgotten about these, but in pulling through pictures for this article, I found a lot which reminded me that this too was one of the things that attracted me to Patrols.
It’s all about the gear.
We had a neighbor up the hill, had a 61 or 2 Dodge p/u. He was noted for a “salute” no one wanted.
I missed this when it was posted (was away for a few days), but I remember the patrols from elementary school, I think all 5th or 6th graders, I recall wearing orange or lime-green safety vests rather than, or in addition to, belts. But it’s been a long, long time so many am not remembering as it was. I assumed they were run by Montgomery County, MD public schools and knew nothing about any AAA involvement. My only minor-authority position in elementary school was one year (about 4th grade) working behind the lunch counter selling cold milk, ice cream, and cookies (a full school lunch was served in a different location). The only compensation was about 25 cents worth of free merchandise, which meant milk and dessert at the subsidized prices. I think I just liked the authority angle, working just like a grown-up.
Ohhhhhhhh…as I’ve written somewhere else here, about the only thing I loved more in school than the buses was the cafeteria. YOU got to work in the cafeteria??!! RESPECT!
It does seem that Montgomery County (where I basically spent about 2/3 of my K-12 years) was really into the Patrols. This might be due to the large number of walkers, at least back in the day. Neighborhood schools were so prevalent there back then. Anyhow, I can see how the AAA angle might have been easy to overlook. I think I probably really engaged mostly with that as my dad worked for AAA (urban and transportation planning…he wasn’t in the pedestrian safety program) when I was in about 3rd grade.
Overall, I think the vests – although perhaps less stylish – are safer than the sashes.
I was a “safety” in the 6th grade. Students traveled to our rural school by bus, so there was no need for crossing guards per se. Instead, we were stationed in hallways to keep students from running or skipping steps in stairwells. And we stood by the cafeteria garbage pails, insisting that students scrape all leftovers off their plates. It wasn’t “safety” in the strictest sense, but it gave us a taste of responsibility, if not risk.
That brings to mind that in 5th grade there were some kids who were assigned “cafeteria duty”; but sadly it was no honor. Their task was to do what you did overseeing the garbage pails…and then they had to haul them out to the dumpster. 🙁
I’d forgotten all about that. This too was in NC in the early 1970s – where kids apparently did all sorts of jobs around school that it might be illegal to require them to do today.
Jeff ;
I guess it depends, in rural schools many kids were already working long before sun up so adding more work wouldn’t be a big thing .
Also I’d use it to impress the children why they needed to get a good education : so they didn’t wind up garbagemen, er I mean “Sanitation Engineers” .
I never understood why running in the halls was such a big deal when if you had to cross the campus or go to another building there often wasn’t sufficient time .
-Nate
That brings back a memory. I did it in the sixth grade, wasn’t terribly successful at it mainly because I had a power-mad attitude that’d serve me in good stead on a lot of HOA boards. Definitely got no respect from my charges . . . . . and then I had my badge pulled for a week as punishment for climbing a tree on the school’s playground.
Wonder what month for the “52” pic , in DC? Brings some memories back! Of course, being “Constitution Av”, it hasn’t changed much to this day.
They’re either right across the street from the current National Museum of American History (which to someone my age might still be known as the History and Technology Museum…as it was when I worked there in 1978) or perhaps the National Museum of African American History. Neither of which of course were there in the early 1950s.
Beyond those two new museums, that stretch of Constitution is pretty much the same…which is one reason why I love DC. At least that part is rather timeless.
I was a Patrol in 7th grade (1972-73), the last year of elementary school in DeKalb Co, GA. I have no idea how I got picked for this since my grades were consistently good but my conduct was a consistent “N” (needs improvement); I remember one guy turning it down because it would affect his ‘coolness’ (narcissist would not be inaccurate). There were 15 of us (most were Girls), and I was usually the leader in demerits (except for one quarter when one of the Girls got 5 demerits (10 was suspension) in one fell swoop–she still won’t divulge how she managed that). We had the Sam Browne belts with the AAA: white canvas belts like the first picture for indoor work and the entrances, the plastic-y orange reflector belts for outdoor work (play grounds and the traffic crossings) The Girls were the ones who did mostly indoor work, and boys did mostly outdoor work. I got crossing duty and usually the station farthest from school grounds (two blocks, which happened to be half-way home for me–no one wanted it and I didn’t ask for it because it was like Thune Greenland weather station). I did get to work the front entrance (get to ring the bells at 8:20 and 3:20) and that was flag detail as well which was the best. Thankfully I never had to work the grades 1-4 hallway (all those little kids) but that didn’t bother the Girls at all, especially those who really had a mom attitude (walk on the right, NO RUNNING! etc). Most of us looked at being a Patrol as just some kind of duty and a sort of honorific; I don’t recall having a rank but I think we had a Capt (definitely one of the Girls, but none of them were on power trips, unlike the 7th grade science teacher who was in charge of us). However there was a huge incentive to stick it out to the end–the County paid for all the patrols for a train trip to Washington, DC for a tour of the capital city and memorably the Smithsonian Institutes (Air and Space was awesome, we didn’t spend enough time in the History museum). All that is left for me is a certificate that says I was a Patrol, the group picture of us in front of the Capitol, and a couple of trinkets I gave mom (the little Iwo Jima memorial) and my aunt (a metal washington monument with a thermometer in it) which I inherited decades later. We trained the incoming 7th graders about what to do and how to fold the belts properly and then graduated. Next fall we went from top of the heirarchy to the bottom of high school as sub-freshmen.
I was in fact disappointed never to have been chosen to be a Patrol, but one of the sour grapes ways that I rationalized my fate was to note that I had been able to visit the Smithsonian museums nearly weekly for most of my youth. This was due to the fact that I’d lived in DC for most of my elementary years prior to moving away for what would have been the years where I could have been a Patrol. So, I kind of figured that if the “prize” of the job wasn’t going to be all that novel for me, then I “didn’t care” about being a Patrol anyway.
Riiiiiight.
I don’t know, it just seems that kids were more responsible back in the early and mid-20th century. I think the parents were stricter with them and the kids learned to be more self-disciplined.
I believe that pondering the points you raise is one of the main veins of reflection around this whole story. On one level, I instinctively agree with your points. And indeed, I suspect (and note in the piece) that it would be rare nowadays to find any kid who would be so out front about his desire to teach other kids responsibility in the way that “Jimmy” does in the Jam Handy film from the 1950s.
Then again, we have a number of folks here in the comments who note that their own kids are doing the Patrol thing…and clearly it’s still something that happens in schools. So it still exists and fills a need for some kids to this day. What surprised me in my research, and from reading the comments to this post, was just how prevalent and vital Safety Patrol programs still are.
We had it here is Canada, it was sponsered by CAA. I was asked to participate because I was bused to school and it was something to do during lunch. This would have been 1974 and I wonder what happed to Saftey Patrol.
My sister was one of the Safety Patrol in the mid 1960’s. I only remember the white belt, so she may never have been promoted. Most everyone in the village walked to school, and the bus picked up the high school students to take them to Plainfield. It seemed kind of odd because there weren’t many cars on the roads. Marshfield had 5 stop signs and no traffic lights, but we had a Safety Patrol!
This has been a wonderful discussion and set of remembrances. Thank you for your initial research–Jeff as well as your thoughtful replies to the comments made by everyone! As it happens I am a retired criminal justice professor and preparing my 8th book. One chapter is all about school safety patrols (publisher is Springer and it might be out by the end of 2024). I plan to include some of the comments appearing hear. If you would like to provide more details, my contact information is at vacje.com. Wishing everyone a very happy and healthy new year.