Lines of Cars

When schools let out mothers assemble in long lines of cars and vans outside the elementary and middle schools, public and parochial. This should’ve struck me as odd long ago. Isn’t female work-force participation very high? It’s been rising, rising, rising since World War II. But around here many, many women are not off somewhere laboring away at 12-hour jobs; they’re at home laboring away at 18-hour jobs. They also don’t seem to need the money; the vehicles are splendid; the majority are vans, SUVs, etc. Reminds me to get in a car some afternoon and check out the less affluent communities to see what the scene is there. The nearest high school has so many cars around it—also new, shiny, expensive—that you’d think it is a place of work. When high school lets out the students who walk home are a trickle. At the nearest big intersections double lanes going back eight, nine cars wait for the light to go green. Lots and lots of money is still in evidence, but I don’t notice it because it has become part of the background. What stand out are the homes here and there carrying straight-forward signs in the windows telling me that they are foreclosed properties.