Boris is gone!

For several years, during the school year I've enjoyed bicycling through a certain intersection and greeting "Boris."

Boris was the crossing guard. Although the intersection has traffic signals and crosswalks, he was there apparently to add visibility by wearing his hi-viz vest and carrying his stop sign as he accompanied kids across the busy streets.

I don't know where Boris was from, but he sounded like he had a "slavic" type accent, and English was obviously his second language - if he knew English at all. But he always had a cheerful smile, and countered my "Good morning!" with a "Goot morneenk!" back at me.

Often times, his wife (I assume) was sitting a few feet away in their car. And we'd exchange waves as Boris and I were exchanging our "good mornings."

Today is the first day of the '10-'11 school year... and there was a new crossing guard.

We exchanged "good mornings"... and I suspect we'll develop a casual friendship that never gets past the "good morning" stage. But that's all right.

I hope Boris is okay... I'll miss seeing him.

(Previous Boris commentary HERE.)