Memories And How Times Change

Rogue wrote:Times have changed in many, many ways. When I was in high school, graduated in 1981, I had a gun rack in my truck with a .22 and a shotgun in it. When I was a teenager I could drink at home after my thirteenth birthday. I started driving at the age of 14 but didn't get a drivers license until I was 18.
We used to hang out in our HS parking lot showing our shotguns to a couple of rabbit hunting teachers we had. We had short schedules in my Junior and Senior year and there was enough daylight left to get the beagles down after school. Sheesh, have the times changed! Over 1600 kids on that campus and ONE security guard who was over 65 and retired from the steel mill. Scores where settled with fists and when it was over, it was over. What is so scary is that for me, it wasn't all that long ago.

When I was a wee lad I'd run around with a green plastic Mr. Potato Head pipe crammed with dry leaves. I believe I was six or so.
I'm on the younger end of the spectrum here (23), but even now talking to my younger brother about what his High School is like is a bit strange. Things have changed rather quickly in the past six years.

I am only 24 and I can remember running to the gas station across the street and buying cigs for my grandma. I was probably 6 or 7. My family are big cigarette smokers so as kids we used to get the candy cigarettes all the time and have mom and dad "light" the ends of them. And Columbine would never have happened at my HS because everyone would have ran out and came back with their guns.

On the other hand, today I was at my daughter's school and noticed the pipe and cigar decorations as a prelude to Father's Day. Looks like some of the past is still slipping through!

It is quite common for men's bathrooms in China to be designated by a pipe sign. Smoking is extremely common here. I think 50% of cigarettes in the world are consumed by Chinese men and there is a huge array of Chinee brands, most of which are aromatic of some kind, which I do not like at all. Pipes are not understood though. I grew up in a decent enough suburb of Glasgow and at the weekends and during the summer I'd be on Loch lomond waterskiing and swimming. My mates and I used to go out in the morning and my mum would say "Be back by dinner". We'd spend hours just wandering about in the hills, climbing trees, riding bikes etc. Back then if you were doing something dodgy, any adult had the right to tell you to stop it. Now it is risky to get involved. He'll just whip out his phone and tell the police a 'strange man' is bothering him. I remember once a couple of 10 year olds were climbing all over my back garden and I went to the window. They just stopped and looked at me like I was doing something wrong. Thankfully, they didn't come back, but it is a very tricky issue these days. In the pursuit of fairness, well-meaning people have decided to excuse almost any behaviour on the grounds of "social exclusion" etc, to the point where decent people are being penalised for merely defending their rights. One burglar successfully sued the man whose house he'd atempted to rob when he fell off the roof, on the grounds of health and safety. Not all the changes have been bad of course. My dad still talks in cringingly racist terms, often with no malice. Once he remarked, "I've been working with these Pakis for a while and you know son, they're actually alright" I just shook my head in dismay.

The biggest change since the days of my birth has definitely been job security and declining respect for the working man. We are not even seen as human beings these days, just units of production.

And don't forget the absolute need for designer everything, no matter how shoddily made.

At 5 My Grandfather gave me my first 22, could only have one bullet at a time, at 12 I drove the rice combine to a different field for him, called everyone elderly Sir, black or white, taught that lieing was the worst sin, worse than thieveing, Grandfather said you know a thief will steal but a liar you don't know what he is about. Walked every Saturday to the movies in town by myself , got a quater, 5 cents for the movie , 5 cents for a Big Hershey bar, had 15 cents left, I was a rich kid. In school you had a disagreement you put the gloves on, afterwards you shook hands or you would get cuffed on the head, parents didn't interfere , you stared in wonderment at the Veterans on the fourth oh July. Then you changed in the fifties grew hair long, smoked and looked cool, but you still called older people Sir, People had a kindness for other people, now they don't. Fought in Asia, wounded, had 2 children fight in Desert Storm, proud of my Country, now not so much. Tear up when Flag is flown at games, now when they pan people they talk, chew gum, when the Anthiem is sung. No Respect. That is what is missing nowadays , RESPECT. I"m an old fart but a proud old Fart.