Every morning, Mary Lima wakes up early and gets ready for
school.
Tres Pinos – Every morning, Mary Lima wakes up early and gets ready for school.
On the surface, that doesn’t seem like such an incredible feat. But Lima, 72, is not a student. Nor is she a teacher, a principal or classroom aide. Or even the mother of students going to school.
Instead, Lima has, for 28 years now, served as the crossing guard for Tres Pinos School, helping students cross what is possibly the most dangerous intersection in front of any school in San Benito County.
“I have seen so many kids grow up,” Lima said. “Now I am watching children cross who are the little babies of other kids I watched years ago. A few weeks ago I was talking to someone, and I told them I was getting very old. And they said, ‘oh, no, you still look just the same’ and I laughed and told them ‘but you already have two kids of your own!’ I’ve been doing this a long time. I love the kids.”
Lima lives on Airline Highway, directly across from Tres Pinos School. When the school was in its final stages of construction back in 1976, Lima was shocked to discover that because of the way the district boundaries fell, her children would not be allowed to attend the school.
“I went to meetings, I talked to people, I still don’t understand it,” said Lima, who sent her children to Sacred Heart Parish School rather than Southside School, the district she lives in. “I was not able to send my kids to the school right across from our driveway. It’s stupid.”
But once the school opened, Sharon Johnson, the school’s first principal, approached Lima about helping students cross the busy street. Despite her children not being enrolled there, Lima readily accepted Johnson’s offer.
“When we first moved here from Portugal, we came to help out my aunt and uncle, and I worked in the cannery (San Benito Foods). I worked there for 15 years, but then my aunt died,” Lima said. “My uncle has one good leg and one artificial leg. When auntie died, he needed help with the cooking, cleaning, getting dressed. I had to quit the cannery, so when the school opened, I was home. Miss Johnson thought this would be good for me, so I asked my husband, and he said okay. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Each school day now finds Lima sitting in her parked car at the end of her driveway, waiting to help students who are walking or riding bikes cross the busy highway. She waves to parents as they leave the school, and people often stop by to wish her a good morning or afternoon.
“Everyone is so nice, they talk and say good morning,” she says. “And the kids are all real good. We’ll say hi, and I might say ‘be a good boy.’ And we wait to cross together. I wait for a break, and then I cross the kids when there is a big, big distance between us and any cars. Otherwise, they stay. I don’t play around. I have to watch them all the time.”
In 28 years, Lima says she has had trouble with students misbehaving only once.
“One time a few years ago, there were two eighth-grade boys who lay down in the middle of the road to prove to some girls that they were not scared,” she said. “I saw a lady (driving in) from Hollister. I got mad that day. I went right home and called Miss Johnson, and when the woman got into Tres Pinos, she stopped and called too. I think they ended up missing a few days of school after that.”
Lima says her biggest problems are not the students, who have always been “very nice,” but drivers who do not obey the posted 25 mile per hour traffic signs in front of the school.
“The street is very busy now, and it’s getting bigger and bigger every day,” she said. “About 10 or 12 years ago we used to have (California Highway Patrol) cars that would patrol back and forth, but not anymore. And nobody seems to pay any attention. It’s supposed to be a 25 mph zone from the front of my house until you get past Stonegate, but no one stops. No one slows down.”
Laurie Castaneda writes Local Stories for the Free Lance every Wednesday, featuring people who live in and love San Benito County.
