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abigayle77's avatar

I don't care about back to school pics, but you got me with the Pepsi Machines.

In my (small midwestern) hometown, there is a random vending machine on a streetcorner near (but not *in*) downtown. It sits on the far end of a parking lot for an 8-unit apartment building and is chained to a telephone pole. The sidewalk in front of it is badly cracked and the vending machine sits on an angle. It's graphics are so faded you can barely make out that it's a Diet Coke machine with a 2-versions-ago logo design. It looks fully abandoned. It dispenses ICE COLD canned Coke exclusively by coin operation.

It is my favorite landmark and when it inevitably disappears, I may never return to that neighborhood.

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Laura's avatar

My back to school pics would be of the neighborhood kids running through our back yard with their backpacks bouncing, down to the uneven steps (kept clear of blackberries by our 89 year old retired dairy farmer neighbor with his weed whacker) that lead down to the bus stop on the narrow rural road that circles our island, depositing them at Beach School, a K-5 elementary with two main multi-grade classrooms, incredible teachers, and a culture of respect for others. About half of the students come there from off-island. I volunteer once a week, hanging out with half of a class doing math while the teacher concentrates on the other half. I also helped out in my own kids' classrooms until they didn't want me around anymore, always struck by how much harder their teachers' jobs were than mine teaching 7-13, and always concluding that the teachers I've know that thrive in P-6 should all get Presidential Medals of Freedom. And, if they don't thrive, we should be asking ourselves, what more should we do so that they can?

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