A childhood story...

[Ol Smoke]

Thinking about school and stuff today, I thought back to when I was in the 4th grade in Arkansas.

 

Things were so different then, it's like we were on a whole different planet in another dimension.

For instance,  this one thing we did back then for fun during recess.

 

Behind our school was a 40' drop off into a chasm that used to be a stream.  During the building of

the school they dug out rock and stuff and left this big rock slide area that started at the grounds and

went into this deep gorge.  Now I don't know who thought this up but it had been going for years, because the

two car hoods we used were from the 40's.

 

Someone had removed these hoods from the cars and dragged them up to the school at sometime and

attached ropes to the front of the hoods.  Someone then brought up some old pillows and placed them

on the inside of the car hoods.  So what you would do is go down in to the gorge and grab one of these

hoods (with about 5 other guys) and drag it up the hill.  Then two of you would get on it and sit on the

pillows and hang on to the ropes.  Then some guys would push you over the edge and down you go!

We would do this over and over.  Many times we would fall off and get all scraped up and have to go see

the nurse.  It wasn't unusual to see three or four guys in the nurses office after recess, getting band-aids

put on.  There was this one time when two of my friends got on the old brown one and we pushed them over,

but about halfway down, thud!  They hit one of the rocks that jutted out from the bank.  Both of them were 

launched over the front of the hood onto the rocks below.  They were pretty banged up, so we took them to

the nurses station and she bandaged them, and back to class they went.

Sometimes there were up to ten guys running around in the class and school with band-aids and bandages on.

But, at no time were we ever told to stop riding the hoods.  Our parents didn't throw a fit about it either.  It was

just kids being kids.

 

Today, the schools have taken out a lot of the playground equipment here because they deem it dangerous, and

don't want to be sued when a child is hurt on it.  They won't let the kids play certain ball games because they

might get hit in the head with a big rubber ball and get brain damage.  True.  But here is something I don't

understand at all.  They let the kids ride in a shoolbus without seat belts.  Figure that one out.

[buhbye]

Thanks for sharing! That is true. What is the world comming to

[Chameleon]

  Great story man, brings back many memories of my childhood also.. Things sure are a lot different now.. Gotta let kids be kids ya know, let em get beat up, banged up.. Let em compete in sports, and let em lose a few.. I don't care what anyone says losing a few is good for a child, cause I know for sure when real life hits, they are not going to win em all..

[FinZeroX]

Organisms are made to adapt. By limiting kids' freedom in order to avoid injuries, the human race grows weaker generation by generation. And it's not just physical weakness.

It has been proven, that exposing people to anything imaginable, will make the adapt. No matter what it is; disease, injuries, love, lies, help. We WILL grow tolerant.

[Dddrgn]

Yeah, that's far different than what it was like for me in school. Our school removed the swings, the tether-ball pole, and banned football before school and during lunches, all in fear that students might get hurt. There's even a law where I live that a teacher cannot legally physically touch a student in ANY WAY. One student was throwing rocks at windows, smashing them, and trying to hurt people, and all they did was put the school in lock-down until the police arrived, because they could be fired if they touched him. It's absolutely insane.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Dddrgn

[Gorilla]

I kinda feel sorry for kids nowadays. the world is not the same as it was 30 years ago.