Where are we headed

Rob Keeble

Member
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12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Up early this morn, watching news, catching up on email and i hear they now banned kids from taking a football to school in Toronto. Some adult got hit by one and had concussion so now generations of kids cannot take a ball to school. Believe it or not Nerf balls are allowed.

When i hear stuff like this i really want to get off the planet.

So no marbles, no peanut butter, no snowballs,no footballs, no cricket or baseballs, closed all Toronto school swimming pools so no learning to swim at school..............what a sterile life:(

Must be getting old .......i really feel sorry for the kids and future kids.

Heaven forbid theses administrators ever having pitched up at my elementary school.

1)Marbles ...top game. Included life lessons of deception, fraud, theft, deceit, chance, gambling, loss, riches, innovation, creativity, sharing, loans, repayments :) But i guess thats all to educational lets rather focus on the one idiot in a 1000 thats gonna shove one where it dont belong.

Kennetjie......boy this game would give them instant seizure.
Makes use of a short piece of broom handle bout 18" to 24" long and another piece 4 to 6 inches long. Make groove in ground using long piece groove to be same length and depth as short piece.
Game starts by holding short piece across long piece with one finger the moving hand holding this combo upwards and letting go of the small pieces such that it flies upwards. When it comes down you gotta whack the little piece as far as possible.
No helmets, gloves or face or neck or body protection used in this game. If you aint fast enough to either catch the flying short piece or get you body out the way you got guaranteed pain and bruising.

Wow another life lesson ....stay awake, keep focused and eye in the game, stay fit and healthy or you aintp gonna survive.

Boy life was tough in themdays :) :)

But what would they say if they actually saw our potatoe guns. Yup guns at school. These guns worked with one cap. You took the chamber out pushed it into a potatoe which had it take a triangular wedge out of the potatoe. Chamber returned to gun cap placed over small hole in top of chamber. Gun cocked and fired at bare legs preferable just behind the knee. (oh and we all wore shorts (wonder when they gonna ban those) ) .
Yeah you felt that sting :)

Guess we were all budding mobsters.

Well guess they all better off now with traquilizers and therapists :(


This is usually where i blame lomls industry.....(brotherhood of insurance industry) .......and boom the battle ensues. :) :);)

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
Additionally, Rob, I carried a pen knife to school virtually every day - from first grade thru HS graduation. So did nearly everyone else.

After I got my drivers license (tenth grade), there was a gun rack in the truck, and it had both a rifle and a shotgun in it. It got parked in the school lot.

Think you'd ever get away with that today?

Never had a potato gun, but rubber band slingshots and broken-in-half paper clips were commonly used...
 
Additionally, Rob, I carried a pen knife to school virtually every day - from first grade thru HS graduation. So did nearly everyone else.

After I got my drivers license (tenth grade), there was a gun rack in the truck, and it had both a rifle and a shotgun in it. It got parked in the school lot.

Think you'd ever get away with that today?

Never had a potato gun, but rubber band slingshots and broken-in-half paper clips were commonly used...

Add touch football, tag, dodge ball, and most playground equipment to the list of banned items/practices. No wonder kids spent all their time in front of a video game. What's left?

I, too, carried a pocket knife all through school. We had about 50 acres of woods behind our house and some much larger unimproved areas not too far away. We would be out the entire day without supervision climbing trees, firing our toy guns at each other, and collecting all the the scrapes, cuts, bruises, an memories that would follow us for the rest of our lives. Can you imagine sitting back with a cold brew at the age of 65 and reminiscing about the first time you topped 100,000 in Super Mario something-or-other? Poor kids.
 
I was just discussing something like this last night with my wife (coarse it was a one sided discussion). Saw a commercial for Lipitor, guy standing at the top of a small hill with is bicycle, helmet in his hand, his cute little spandex outfit on and he says something like this: I use to ride down the hill with out a helmet on, took some big chances in my younger days.... then he goes on to explain how safe he is now because he takes Lipitor... The big risk he took, in his life, riding a bike without a helmet, give me a break!
 
I provided a 12 gauge shotgun that was discharged.....fired....in school over a 3 week period.....6 times it was fired......I only had to make one minor modification....

I played the part of Buffalo Bill Cody in the musical "Annie Get Your Gun" in HS. We had a very professional stage at the small HS I attended. In one scene Annie was supposed to fire a gun into the air and one of the stage hands above the stage was to drop 2 rubber ducks.

The art club at the school had spent a lot of time and effort painting different backdrops for different scenes in the musical.

Even at 16, I was no dummy....I opened those 12 gauge shells up and shook out all the shot and closed them back up.

Opening night Annie fired the shot......the wadding knocked paint off a 3' area on the backdrop. The resultant laughter we got from the crowd wasn't expected but we accepted it. The next day I opened those shell up and removed the wadding and the powder at the direction of the music teacher.

Yeah....I still have a 12 gauge that was fired 6 times inside a HS at request.......LOL:huh::D:rofl:
 
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Add touch football, tag, dodge ball, and most playground equipment to the list of banned items/practices. No wonder kids spent all their time in front of a video game. What's left?

I, too, carried a pocket knife all through school. We had about 50 acres of woods behind our house and some much larger unimproved areas not too far away. We would be out the entire day without supervision climbing trees, firing our toy guns at each other, and collecting all the the scrapes, cuts, bruises, an memories that would follow us for the rest of our lives. Can you imagine sitting back with a cold brew at the age of 65 and reminiscing about the first time you topped 100,000 in Super Mario something-or-other? Poor kids.

In my high school during lunch hour, we played full contact football... I played in cowboy boots. Also always carried a knife, one I got from my dad at age 10... he traded me his old knife for a newer one I had from somewhere... he liked mine better, I like his... carried until I left for the navy and don't know what happened to it after that... at age 12 we lived at the end of the road in east Texas... from there you went deep into the woods where my neighbor boys and I played everyday... we usually were barefoot in summer, and used to make bows and arrows from Yaupon staves, and cut tall streight weeds that grew around for the arrows... often we stole nails from our fathers work shops, but the heads off, sharpend them and tied them to the ends of our "arrows".... I don't remember any of us ever getting hurt seriously...don't think we shot at one another, because we all got to be pretty good shots with a bow and arrow, but we put them in many many trees.
 
Just had to find a pic of this today. Here is the cap fired potatoe gun we had back in school days. :)

potatoe cap gun.jpg


Little chamber had triangular shape front and thats what got stuck into poor ole potatoe. :)

Just imagine today what would happen if Johnny had one of these in class...:rolleyes::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
I tried to resist but, it bears repeating:

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1958 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2008 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1958 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2008 – Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

1958 – Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2008 – Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1958 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2008 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1958 – Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2008 – Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.

1958 – Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, and goes to college.
2008 – Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.

1958 – Ants die.
2008 – BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated; Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1958 – In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2008 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
 
This is what leads you to the Occupy Wall St people protesting because they have to pay their bills. My generation has lost all accountability.

(I sincerely apologize for an under 10 post count being political)
 
Owned a knife of my own since I was six, and carried one every day throughout school. (Including several years in high school when I carried a 4" Buck Folding Hunter on my belt.) Never had a gun or gun rack in the car at school, but had plenty of friends who did. Raised in a house with many very sharp knives and several loaded guns. Only cut myself badly once (when I was about 4) and never shot anything that didn't need shooting. My friends and I went on long hikes and bike rides, drank out of streams, played in storm drains ("The Tunnels") and crossed the street without the need for uniformed crossing guards. We got paddled in school if it was called for, spanked even harder at home when appropriate, and were held accountable for our own misdeeds. And somehow we all survived.

Times have changed indeed.

About 15 years ago I was involved in an emergency situation at Universal Citywalk in LA. Long story short, at the end I had to escort a very frightened little girl (about 3 or 4 years old) down a long escalator to return her to her mom. She was terrified (I'd just saved her from a 20+ foot fall) and crying. As I knelt down in the escalator to try to calm her, I had to resist the urge to put my arm around her for fear of being accused of kidnapping, molestation, and pedophilia.
 
When I first started teaching during the fall and winter several times a week I'd have this conversation. Mr Daugherty I went hunting yesterday and left these shells in my jacket, would you keep them for me? Sure, just get them at the end of the day. That was the end of it. Now they would be in big trouble. If I had a box to open I'd say who has a knife I could borrow? Easily 2/3 of the class would. Now they would be at the alternative school. When my son started school I would ask if not check his backpack everyday for about the first two months of school to see if he had his pocket knife.
 
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It amazes me the things my daughter's school has to document/report: The other day she ran into another kid in the playground and got a scrape on her cheek. I got a call from the school in the middle of the day telling me about it & when I picked her up there was an "incident report" for me to take home. All this for a scrape on the cheek.

In my opinion, unless she needed stitches or they were concerned about a concussion then it is a normal part of growing up. I think they were all a bit concerned about my apparent lack of concern over a playground bump.
 
I started taking my daughter backpacking when she was 7. She learned to carry a cigarette lighter and a pocket knife. Fast forward to age 14, she was going to a NY Dept of Environmental Conservation camp for 1 or 2 weeks. We get a mailing stating that among other things, cigarette lighters and pocket knives are forbidden. For kids going on overnight trips in wilderness....
 
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