I was going to write about how my friend and I were discussing the fact that it must be tough to be a young person these days. I was going to mention that there are just so many decisions, temptations, and so called 'freedoms' for young teens and adults, as well as so many ways to mess up and get hurt. I was then going to list them all and point out just how much better it was in 'my day' and how there was none of 'that' type of throwing away money, flagrant waste of youthful years, and certainly none of that 'sexual' freedom went on during the 60's or 70's.
But then..I realized I would be most certainly be wrong if not actually out and out lying if I tried to tout this line of insight as Truth. I would be wrong not to think that people of all ages..not just the youngins.. mess up and hurt themselves. I wouldn't be in total error when I say that it is tough to be a young person these days, but I would be in error if I limited the argument to just young people...it is tough to be any age these days.
Perhaps the only difference between being young today and being young "yesterday" is that some of the 'yesterdays' got to be sheltered in the culture in which they were raised longer. We weren't sling shotted through cyberspace being exposed to EVERYTHING out there in one huge leap.
The 'yesterdays' transition into the world was more gradual...at least mine was. When I left my parents' rural nest, I only had to travel an hour to be in a different milieu...the city.
For the first year or two, I travelled by bus nearly every weekend back to my small town to reconnect with home. I remember the first time I didn't come home for three weeks as I can recall my mother commenting about it to the neighbour .
The absolute BEST thing about coming home during those early years of adulthood was the group of young people that also returned on a regular basis. It was a mixture of young men and women who pretty much had the same idea of what fun was...and had the same little idea about romance or sex. Our cumulative knowledge of drug information was somewhere between Aspirin and Halls Cough Drops. An alternative lifestyle to this group would have meant someone whose mother worked outside the home or whose brother cut hair for a living.
Yes, there was beer drinking, card playing, dancing, and even some random groping and lip smacking out on country roads no more than a mile or two from any of our parents' homes. I remember packing a car with about 10 people ( with more hands than one would think possible) traveling down a dirt road (the kind that the dust is like black flour) and being stopped by of all things a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He (there were only He's then ) just looked in the car..saw how many people there were...asked for the driver's license..saw the name..and simply sent us on our way. We were a harmless bunch and he knew it. We gave him no hassle and we received none.
After a few years the 'Gang' sort of melted away. Non Gang marriages started to happen, travel and work demanded more time, and adult responsiblities slowly encroached.
Life with its determined measure of joy, worries, losses, dashed hopes and expectations have taken a toll on each member of that little group of comrades, myself included; which makes those lost days of the Milk and Cookie Gang that much more treasured.
What really is a pity is that I doubt if a picture of the 'Gang' ever existed as cameras in those days were primarily the objects owned by the 'real' adults. This contrasts greatly with today's world of cell phone cameras and makes it one 'freedom' of today's youth that would have been good to have 40 years ago.
I think it would be a good idea to have a Reunion..and have a Milk and Cookie Gang Float in the next home town parade.
Well written by the Pickle of our little band.
ReplyDeleteB.M.