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Show 'Mr. A' is school crossing guard with a lucky beard By JENNIFER PETERSON Staff Writer Dwayne Ashby may be better known to commuters who drive Davis Boulevard as the crossing guard who waves. . "I started waving to people to slow down Ashby explained. ' One day they just started waving back." ; Ashby, known to the children who cross his street as Mr. A or the man with the lucky beard, has helped help-ed children cross Davis Boulevard at 1500 South for the past three years. "They learned a long time ago that pulling the beard is very bad hick. But the older kids still touch it, for luck, I guess," Ashby explained. ex-plained. It all started when Ashby's neighbor, a crossing guard, asked Ashby to be a substitute. After two months of spring substituting, Ashby signed up for a permanent position. He was positioned at his current post and has remained ever since. A retired laboratory technician, Ashby spends his summers working at Pioneer Trail State Park in Salt Lake City. He likes his jobs as guide and guard, he said, because he enjoys people and especially children. 4 'Every year a few of the kids leave to go up to the junior high, but then there are the new ones and we go through the same things, 'What's your name?' and 'Why do they call you that?' " Ashby explained. Serving as the crossing guard on a busy street is not without its excitement. ex-citement. Ashby said many people who drive along the boulevard "consider this stretch a measured mile." "What's really incredible are these people who travel along here at 50 mile per hour but they have six kids in their car," Ashby said. If there's one person who would like to see photocop in Davis County Coun-ty it's Ashby. 'If the police come up here and just park along here, people really slow down for them. But they don't have a lot of time and once they're gone, people just speed right back up," Ashby explained. Many people who drive along the boulevard, Ashby explained, seem unaware of crosswalk laws. "Thev think that because the kids are past their cars they can just go, but they can't. This sign right here says they have to stop," Ashby said of his hand-held stop sign. In spite of the trials of being a crossing guard, Ashby has no intention inten-tion of quitting the job. In fact, he said he'll probably maintain service, ser-vice, as he put it, "until I drop." |
