Come rain or shine David Scott has been ensuring children and their families make it safely to and from the school gates for almost four years.
The much-loved Tamborine Mountain State School lollipop man has greeted everyone by name with a hello and a warm chat.
Sadly, the pensioner has been forced to put away his stop sign and say goodbye to his “family” or lose his pension.
“It was delightful hearing the kids talk,” he shared.
“I have no family, so they became my family.”
His face lights up as he recalls some of the many funny incidents and stories the children would share with him as they met him each day.
“You’ve got to be ready for anything on the crossing,” he laughed.
And he said, “when it was quiet I’d look up at the trees and think, thank you God.”
The job at the crossing came about by chance. David had actually applied for a job as a cleaner at the school, but when he was told he didn’t get it but the lollipop position was available he jumped at it.
He said some parents have told him they wouldn’t trust anyone else to walk their children across the crossing.
“It was a teary farewell. There were hugs and tears in the middle of the road,” he said of his final day on duty.
He delivered an emotional poem he wrote to the children at assembly describing his job as a “privileged honour”.
Along with the children writing is his passion and with his new free time he plans to return to the desk, finishing up two stories and a third in the pipeline, adding to the three already published.
His autobiography, Stargazer, details the 40 years he worked in the film industry running the family indoor theatres in the Murray River area from the young age of 17 when his father died.
“It’s what you’d call a riches to rags story, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it,” he laughed.
However, his love for the local children means he’ll be returning to the school as a volunteer sharing the children’s book he’s written, which he plans to print in pamphlet form with space for children to write on.
“They are little moralistic stories showing that people with differences are just the same.”
