chabouk wrote:austinrealtor wrote:I don't consider myself an "old timer" by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm kind of taken aback by all this talk of idiot parents and stupid kids walking around in camo with realistic looking guns etc. What happened to the "good ol' days?"
It wasn't very long ago, mid 1980s, that I was a youngster walking around in old Army fatigues and camo gear with some rather realistic-looking toy rifles and pistols (and they didn't all have orange tips on them back then - and the ones that did have the orange tips, we could pry them off with dad's pliers). We played out scenarios EXACTLY as you're describing.
Only major difference is we USUALLY did so on our own property, usually in our own backyard, but certainly not in a neighbor's property.
I was with your right up to that last sentence. The difference for me and my generation (I'm 46) is that we usually did so with
real guns.
Okay, I have to say there's also another difference: we didn't do that in our teens. We "played Army" in camo while carrying guns when we were ages 8 to 10/11/12 or so. By the time puberty hit, we were past gunpowder, and moved on to girls and gasoline. Playing soldier was for little kids.
I don't like Airsoft. I never let my kids have toy guns (they all had real guns instead).
If I got into the sociology of this trend, I'd say it is a consequence of delayed adulthood, where today's kids are pampered and protected from "life". They're not allowed to do anything really thrilling until they're past the age when they should have already put such things aside. Kids aren't allowed to wander, explore, or encounter anything that might be remotely dangerous, even though those things are a key part of growing up and learning what is okay and what isn't. We learned to drive on dirt roads at 10 or 12, and were itching to get our learner's permits at 14 so we could drive on the pavement. We rode bicycles without helmets and fell down and bumped our noggins, so that when we grew up we appreciated how important it is to wear protective gear. We played on playgrounds that were made of steel, rocks, and concrete, with no rubber padding in sight, and we learned that gravity hurts. We not only talked to strangers, we went door to door selling magazine subscriptions, or pushing a lawnmower and a gas can looking for work. At 16 or 17, if we sweated all day hauling hay and bought some cold beer to cool off, the worst that happened if we were caught, was the deputy forcing us to pour it out on the side of the road. Or maybe he called our parents, which was a fate worse than jail.
Today, puberty hits earlier than ever, but "growing up" is delayed until 21, 25, sometimes until the 30s, if even then. From kindergarten on, kids learn by example that The Rules are arbitrary, capricious, and enforced with "zero tolerance", with absolutely no consideration for what would be right or just. They're taught that self defense is no different than assault, since both parties are punished equally.
And appropriate to the trespassing theme of this thread, they're taught that they're entitled to an equal share of everything, and that it's wrong of you to insist they not play games on your lawn.
I can't believe I've turned into a geezer before hitting 50.
