Things Ain't Like They Used To Be - Or Are They?

I was poking around reading various blogs this morning and tuned into one of my many favorites, Kitchen Logic. She’s having kind of a tough time right now with kid issues and wrote about “Getting Your Naughty On.”

Back in the Dark Ages, when Ole and I were growing up, things were pretty different. Big trouble back then would be considered a pretty minor incident in this day and age with all the negative opportunities that kids have today. But then, we grew up in a fairly sheltered area of the world, too, I shouldn’t forget that.

Ole was considered a “hood” back then. Anybody else remember what that term means? The dictionary defines it as short for hoodlum; a street tough. At least HE thought he was a tough guy and hung out with that group of guys – you know – leather jackets with collars up, ducktail hair styles, smoking non-filtered cigarettes, drinking beer out on the country roads on Friday nights, etc. Most of them spent their time standing around on street corners, chewing gum, smoking cigarettes and acting tough.

Our graduating class was 478 students, so it wasn’t exactly small. The year we graduated from high school was the first year I ever heard anything about drugs being used or sold; marijuana to be exact. Drinking beer and smoking seemed to be the worst offense. Although we had one guy who would get high on Vicks inhalers. He’d cut the end off and suck on the wick from inside the inhaler. Boy, would he get goofy, but for some reason he was never able to convince anyone else to do that.

Legal drinking age at that time in South Dakota was 18 while it was 21 in both North Dakota and Minnesota. Ole had a buddy who drove a Corvette Sting Ray (rich kid) who would make a weekly trip down to South Dakota, buy a bunch of beer, bring it back and sell it to his buddies for their Friday night parties. Now that guy is a well-known pediatric heart surgeon in the southwest.

I have to say the rest of Ole’s “hood” buddies all turned out okay with the exception of two. One turned out to be a successful restaurant owner, another owns his own body shop, another has retired from an upper level position with Northwest Airlines. And Ole wore a 3-piece suit for 30+ years and was able to retire at 55. Unfortunately one of the guys served in the infantry in Viet Nam and has suffered from PTSD ever since he returned 35 years ago. He has never married and has great difficulty holding any kind of a job. The other also served in Viet Nam and became an airplane mechanic when he got out of the service. A number of years later he divorced his wife of 20+ years and married a trophy wife. We haven’t heard of him or from him for many years.

Referencing Ole and his 3-piece suit days – to look at him now you’d never guess that was his background. Now I can’t get him out of his blue jeans and flannel shirts, and he’s even got an earring and tattoos. I guess he’s going back to his rebellious “hood” days.

Ole never got caught doing any of the things that “hoods” do – but I can’t say that for some of his buddies. One night one of the guys had a flat tire and no money to get it fixed or buy a new one. So they went to the After Hours Tire Shop (car parked on the street) and got one there. When Ole and buddy Junior found out the plan for the night they decided not to participate. Lucky for them they didn’t because that night the cops just happened by and the guys got hauled into the police station. They got their hands slapped and their parents were called to come get them. Having to have your parents come get you from the police station was worse punishment than having to spend the night in jail.

One of our major sources of entertainment back then was dragging Broadway. Have you ever watched American Graffiti? We truly lived it. The evening was spent driving up and down Broadway seeing who was there and who could be the "coolest." It was a great way to meet guys, arrange to meet them in some parking lot somewhere, then hop in the car with them and ride up and down Broadway in their car. Back then air conditioning was an option that not everyone had in their car. I remember being with a bunch of girls in a car without air in the summertime. Instead of dragging Broadway with the windows down we kept them rolled up so everyone would think we had AC in the car - being "cool" even without AC.

We had a dress code in school that was strictly enforced and this was public school. Girls could not wear jeans or slacks to school. The principal would walk the halls and if he saw a girl with a skirt that he thought was too short he would make her get down on her knees. If the skirt didn’t touch the floor she would be sent home to change. And of course no girl would have thought of having any cleavage showing let alone wearing a short top that exposed her mid section. Guys could not wear blue jeans and all pants had to have belt loops and they had to wear a belt. None of this letting the pants hang down around the hips thing. No t-shirts – had to be a collared shirt of some sort – and no logos on the shirts. Quite a change from today when kids run around with those big baggy pants hanging way down their hips and they look like they’ve dropped a load in them! Now I’m all for fashion, and being with it and all, but that’s just a bit too much for me.

So hang in there, K-Lo. Thing 1 will be fine once he gets through this rebellious stage.

By the way, Ole still says he’s mean, evil, bad, nasty and rotten, and besides that, he’s not a nice guy. Yeah – only in HIS imagination. He’s really such a big marshmallow, it’s pathetic.