Today's Youth (or maybe not)

To give you an idea how things have been going, I've just now gone to look at my own blog to see why-ever I'd title my last blog "Things are Looking Up". Over the past few days, I've become intimately knowledgeable about how my septic system is piped, how it works, and how to troubleshoot it myself. I have done enough loads of laundry to refill the now pumped out septic tank. And from shooting the breeze with the good old boy that sucked out the stuff in the septic tank, I learned of the bizarre things people shoot down their drains. But...we won't go there.

Speaking of filth, on my search for plumbing parts for the drain, Wm and I decided to stop for a bite to eat on the way home. Wm is much like my second born, Anna. When she was Will's age, you DID NOT forget to feed her. I parked, got Wm out of his seat at the fast food joint, and walked towards the door. On the way there, a very nice SUV parked near my truck was vibrating with sound. You've heard them before, deep base, boom boom buooof, boom boom buooff. And then I heard the words. Unintelligible rap - except for the very clear pronunciation of the M-F word every fourth word or so.

Holding my hands over dear son's ears, I look over and a very nice looking, 20 something professional looking woman sat in that car. As I squinted into the sun, I caught her eye, and she mine. I held my gaze as I looked toward her. I was wondering if she had children; did she plan to have them, and if so, if she'd still listen to that music? Would she let them? Truly, I believe, despite her poor taste, she has a right to listen to it, just not to broadcast it where young ears could hear. I reached the door and gave her one last look. I doubt she understood or cared.

Thing is, society can't expect children to grow up as they should without good examples. People cut others off in traffic, give obscene gestures for their perceived insult, and generally behave boorishly. It is difficult to explain to my children why people are sometimes so rude. Perhaps it is ignorance, but increasingly, it seems that it is more a culture of insulation, of thinking one's own rights and wants carry more weight than others' rights.

Last weekend, we went bowling. When we first arrived, a group of adolescent girls occupied two lanes to our right. They were having a good time at a birthday party, and so I cut them some mental slack at first, yet they danced arm in arm up on the wooden platform. They ran back and forth, up past the ball rack, behind bowlers narrowly missing trips to the emergency room. I looked around for an adult, waiting for someone to say "hey, cut it out" but saw only a dad sat reading his paper. mmm...

To my immediate right and left, parents sat talking while their children bowled. Good examples of exercise. Not once did I hear instructions such as "you must wait until the bowlers on either side of you are done to take your turn". In fact, the man to my left was helping his son and kept crossing over into my lane. In his case, and judging from his black dress shoes, I would guess he is not all that familiar with bowling. But the other parents gave no examples of good sportsmanship. Exactly how are children supposed to learn?

Speaking of learning, bowling was a wonderful way to learn some math skills when I was growing up. Adding strikes and spares, adding up the score. Now it is all computerized. Type in your name and hit "go". Kind of spoils it, if you ask me. I was happy, in the end, though as I bowled a 168! I was less than happy to see the photo the kids took of me bowling. A good way to see from another's perspective how you look in the rear.