The Crossing Guard

The Crossing Guard

(Camilla, Georgia) It's just before 7 AM and Charlotte Smith is making sure everything is in place...

Charlotte Smith (School Crossing Guard): I wear this for recognition.

Smith: ...making sure she looks the part.

Ms. Smith: All right. I'm on my way now.

Smith: She leaves for work when the streets are still quiet, but soon the traffic builds, the buses come rumbling by and Charlotte is busy on her corner.

Smith: Eighty-three-year-old Charlotte Smith has been helping the school children of Camilla, Georgia, safely cross the streets for 37 years.

Ms. Smith: Just wait a minute 'till I get all these cars stopped for you.

Smith: Thirty-seven years as a crossing guard at the Mitchell school. These days she helps the children of the children of the children who she first helped cross the street back in 1960.

Smith: Do you think there's anybody around here who doesn't know who you are?

Ms. Smith: I don't believe they do. If there is, they're newcomers, because I've been here so long. And I have people that come over and they'll stop and jump out, 'You don't remember me, do you? You used to cross me when I was about that high.'

Smith: And do you recognize them when they're this big?

Ms. Smith: Some of them I do and some of them I don't.

Smith: Thirty-seven years and not a single child hurt, not so much as a scratch.

Smith: You're pretty serious out here.

Ms. Smith: Serious?

Smith: Well, you're smiling now, but when you get out on that street you're...

Ms. Smith: Well, that's right. Well, I have to.

Smith: You know, you got...

Ms. Smith: Let 'em know I mean business.

Smith: Thirty-seven years and never missed a day of work, not one minute.

Smith: Did you ever have a day when you didn't feel like coming?

Ms. Smith: No.

Smith: Really?

Ms. Smith: You know, I've never been to a doctor since I had my last baby? Never been to the dentist. They won't believe that.

Smith: But Charlotte almost did end up in the hospital a few years back. Principal Todd Bateman remembers a foggy morning when he had to shoo Charlotte off the street to escape a speeding trucker.

Mr. Todd Bateman (Principal, Mitchell School): But, of course, he saw us and pulled over...

Ms. Smith: Yeah.

Mr. Bateman: ...and came back and...

Ms. Smith: And apologized, yeah.

Mr. Bateman: ...and apologized because, you know, she's a fixture.

Smith: Charlotte's days as the queen of safety are numbered, though. A brand new school is set to open in January, and she just doesn't want to drive out there every day. Her six kids, 17 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren think maybe it's time she retired.

Ms. Smith: 'Motheryou ought to belong to one of these old-age groups, you know, and go on trips with them.' I said, 'I'd be so depressed when I got back because they all tend to talk of their ailments and their pills they take and all and...'

Smith: Mm-hmm. You don't go in for that?

Smith: Folks around here will find it strange that day this winter when Charlotte's not stopping traffic anymore, not helping the children.

Ms. Smith: All right, children. Let me through.

Smith: Are you gonna miss these kids?

Ms. Smith: Yes, I imagine I'll miss them.

Smith: Part of the appeal of small towns like Camilla is the familiarity. When Charlotte steps down, it just won't be the same. Harry Smith, CBS news, Camilla, Georgia.