I was watching the news a couple of days ago and there was a story of a missing kid. The kid was found about a 12 mile away from home that I recall. Now I don??t want to be dismissive of a missing kid, but I couldn??t help but consider my own upbringing and my how times have changed, and they are for the worse.
I grew up in the one donkey town of Gore, Virginia where we raised chickens, pigs, a few cows. Later on, we moved to the 2 donkey town of Gainesboro where we were out in the sticks.
As I??ve gotten older I have often considered some of the crap we did as boys. I??m talking boys, 6,7,8-year-old kids and we would be miles away from home on a bicycle or way back in the woods with a 22 rifle. Usually no one knew where we were, but we knew to be home for dinner or we would go hungry and there were many days I would come home after dark and I remember mom telling me that she knew I would come home when I got hungry enough. I had to sneak something as dinner was done.
Upon reflection that is the part that has always puzzled me; She did not know that I would come home because she did not have a clue where I was. Me and my friends were like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and if the Mississippi has been nearby we would have floated it. But when we were teenagers we did float the Shenandoah and again nobody knew where we were or when we would come home. No cell phones, no internet, just a bunch of boys and some inner tubes.
We rode pigs and cows, chased chickens, caught snakes and frogs, went fishing till we were sick of fishing and then the next day did it again. We rode old car hoods down snowy and icy hillsides. We went rabbit and squirrel hunting and caught ground hogs to fatten up to win the 22 rifle that was offered for the fattest groundhogs. Getting sprayed by a skunk and almost having to scrub the skin off me to get the smell off. Trapping beavers and muskrats and tanning their hides for a whopping $4. Or wrecking the bicycle and mom having to pick the gravel out of me. We took turns shooting each other in the butts with BB Guns just to know what it felt like to get shot with one. I distinctly remember when mom was picking BB??s out of my butt, ??If Carl or Junior or Terry or Richard asked you to jump off a Bridge would you do it?? Well quite frankly the answer would have been yes, if they dared me to jump off a bridge I probably would have done it, especially with a double dog dare so long as there was water below it. Fortunately there were no high bridges near us. We did all the stuff they make movies of now and I wouldn??t trade it for anything.
All of us were that way and the kids these days have no clue how bad they have it.
sounds like the farmers didn't leave the keys in the orchard rigs, sorry for that, you missed a lot.
Well Peter I guess my post is actually a lament. I feel sorry for the kids that they cannot be rambunctious kids and roam as I did as a young boy. It could probably be argued that my parents and my friends parents gave us far more liberty than they should have but we survived. Nowadays if a kid is not in constant contact the parents panic. A kid can't go somewhere without the real possibility of some pedophile grabbing them. If they are not home at a certain time the parents call the cops. All they seem to do is play video games.
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I know nothing about being a kid in a big city but being one in the country is in my wheelhouse and even that is a passive sanitized experience compared to what I lived.
I truly feel sorry for the kids today. All those bumps, bruises, scrapes, and cuts made for memories that can't be obtained from a video game or Snapchat.
I can definitely relate. ?ÿWhen I wasn't doing those "hazardous" things Just listed I was working on the farm doing things considerably more likely to cause serious harm. ?ÿSimple everyday life. ?ÿYou just did it.
One Christmas break when I was about 11 or 12 the weather was exceptionally good for doing field work on the farm. ?ÿFor 13 straight days I was on a tractor plowing ground for at least some part of the day. ?ÿIncluding a few hours in the afternoon on December 25. ?ÿIt was a small tractor, turning over only 28 inches of soil on each pass. ?ÿTough soil, too.
I can definitely relate. ?ÿWhen I wasn't doing those "hazardous" things Just listed I was working on the farm doing things considerably more likely to cause serious harm. ?ÿSimple everyday life. ?ÿYou just did it.
One Christmas break when I was about 11 or 12 the weather was exceptionally good for doing field work on the farm. ?ÿFor 13 straight days I was on a tractor plowing ground for at least some part of the day. ?ÿIncluding a few hours in the afternoon on December 25. ?ÿIt was a small tractor, turning over only 28 inches of soil on each pass. ?ÿTough soil, too.
I told you we grew up on the same farm.?ÿ Except for the part about having good weather at Christmas for plowing.?ÿ We had that for probably 360 days per year.?ÿ Bush hogging a?ÿfield (+/- 200 acres) of 8 foot tall dog fennel in 95 degrees can make you want to take up another profession though.?ÿ There was an artesian well fed swimming pool on a neighbor's place that I used to cool off for "lunch" though.
I can relate to Steve's thoughts though.?ÿ Get off the school?ÿ bus, grab a fishing pole or shotgun, and be gone until dark.
Andy
We did grow up on the same farm, but the northwest corner was a LONG way from the southeast corner. ?ÿThat's why it took so long to get it plowed.
Too many parents today think there is a child molester hiding behind every tree.?ÿ The end result is they are raising kids that are unable to do anything for themselves.
"Get off the school?ÿ bus, grab a fishing pole or shotgun, and be gone until dark."?ÿ The good old days.
These days, after the kids get off the school bus they have to be more concerned about being abducted.?ÿ?ÿ ????ÿ
I'm not sure there are any more acts against children (per capita) than there used to be, but we hear about them from coast to coast instead of around the county.
I'm not sure there are any more acts against children (per capita) than there used to be, but we hear about them from coast to coast instead of around the county.
There aren't.?ÿ Statistics show that children are safer now then they've ever been.
"We rode pigs and cows, chased chickens, caught snakes and frogs..."
But don't believe anything the lying sheep say....
Things ain't what they used to be and never were!
Will Rogers
Y'all should drift over to youtube and spend a little time with John Prine. He might not have just what you need right now, but you might remember something else that let's you not worry too much about it.
"We rode pigs and cows, chased chickens, caught snakes and frogs..."
But don't believe anything the lying sheep say....
I can say that none of us ever managed to stay on a pig more than a couple of strides before falling off and it was days of fun trying and even more hilarity attempting to lasso them to try again. And then we thought to maybe strap some kind of a saddle on one of the big boars and that didn't work either. No sheep though and no horses. Where I was raised horses were few and far between and most folks had no use for them and now people have went and turned them into pets. I still have no use for a horse.
Kids were kids back then. I agree 100% with the lament. <br/>I 'went missing' one Sunday when rather than go to Sunday School I walked off for miles along the abandoned rail line. I knew where I was!?ÿ
These days the fears for safety come from internet related issues rather than breaking your arm falling out of a tree. You just don't do that. Might contravene a by-law!?ÿ
Pigs! One of my town mates came to play. He once fell out of the barn and broke his arm. Another time ?ÿbeen playing in the 'pig ark' (houses for pigs) and he went home smothered in fleas. Mum was worried what his mum would think about our disgusting living in flea ridden pens!<br/>No worries on either accounts, his mum knew 'that's what happens on farms' (your ranches).
Thankfully our kids and theirs live in a more liberated world. Well they do when they visit the old folks here on the farm.
Life must be so boring for some!?ÿ
