The difference 50 years makes!


Scenario: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.

1956 - Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack.

2006 - School goes into lockdown, 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 fist fight after school.

1956 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends. Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled.

2006 - 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.

1956 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Principal. Sits still in class.

2006 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.

1956 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2006 - Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by state psychologist 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 headache medicine to school.

1956 - Mark shares headache medicine with Principal out on the smoking dock.

2006 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Mary turns up pregnant.

1956 - 5 High School Boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers.

2006 - Middle School Counselor calls Planned Parenthood, who notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state over and gets an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge. Mary given condoms and told to be more careful next time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.

1956: Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

2006 : Pedro's cause is taken up by state democratic party. 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 can't speak English.

+++++++++++++++++++++

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

1956 - Ants die.

2006 - 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.

1956 - In a short time Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2006 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the late 60's, when I was in junior high, a friend and I were in Burger King sitting in the corner, just hanging around the way teens do when three teenage boys came in with a gun and went to our corner and started pestering us with the gun, saying it was a stickup and they wanted a dime. I said it wasn't loaded. So they showed me that it was.

There were other diners in Burger King who were mildly interested but probably just thought what I did, that one of the kids stole his dad's gun and was showing off.

My attitude was that he was teasing me like mu brother would so I refused to give him a dime even though the gun was pressed against my head. Eventually thay left.

I told my parents who called Burger King and complained that they shouldn't allow loaded guns in there.

Attitudes have changed a lot since then.

Deanne that would be funny if it wasn't so true!

But hey, it must be better this way. The democrats, the government in general and their social engineering certainly know what’s best for us! NOT!

I was at the gun show at the Expo Center yesterday and saw a guy wearing a T shirt that expressed the way I feel exactly.

It said: Dear Government, Leave me the F%&# alone. (Only it wasn’t bleeped out!)

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

"Dear Government, Leave me the F alone"

Right, except for things like abortion, right? Then the government should step in? Or Janet Jackson's boob?

Don't forget, the federal government likes to interfere with state's rights when it comes to medical marijuana, too.

And assisted suicide.

And how we teach in schools.

God forbid we end up with the occasional boob being exposed...

Maybe we can make a law that requires all women to wear pasties just in case!

"'Dear Government, Leave me the F alone'"

Right, except for things like abortion, right"

Well, right. Except for things that create an unwilling victim, like abortion. You've got it right.

I have a friend who was in high school in the early 1970s. He said that he was on the rifle team, and he showed me the rifle team pictues from his yearbook. I think that this was the first time that I had ever heard of a high school having a target shooting club. This certainly would have been unheard of when I attended high school in the early 1990s. What changed?

1956: colored boy whistles at white lady, gets lynched. all white people involved with lynching found not guilty.

As for Deane's "50-year difference" list, I say F... Y..!

197x: KSKD gets into trouble. Principle tries spanking. It's a failure, spanking does not occur due to KSKD making a LOT of noise about it.

Principle, still licking wounds says KSKD is bad kid, will get into trouble, jail, will amount to nothing.

(one year later)

Principle tries to talk non-spank capable KSKD into punishment contract. Authorization to employ greater than average dicipline techniques.

KSKD says, "stuff it."

Principle, signs in KSKD's name, gets hugely embarrased as news of his forgery ends up essentially everywhere.

2004: KSKD sees lame principle at wedding reception. Grins as he lets asshole know life turned out just fine.

Sounds like the princiPAL turned out to be a good PAL (old principle/principal spelling reminder).

Yep. Guilty as charged. Thanks for the mnemonic!

Got one for effect / affect?

I see that one mangled everywhere, even in print!

Back on topic:

2007: KSKD's kid gets into trouble. School recommends detention. AKA, playtime. KSKD asks for something of substance, has to sign waiver, etc...

Kid washes walls, others see this and ask lots of questions. School counsel (snitch) reports this, KSKD ends up talking with social worker. (bitch)

Invokes attorney, everybody goes away nicely.

KSKD's kid doing fine, walls cleaner, KSKD shakes head in wonder. School still suffering from large numbers of problem kids, who know absolutely nothing will happen to them!

Difference between then and now indeed. Can't we somehow get some balance? Spanking is not ok, but neither is only being able to apply the weakest of non-dicipline techniques...

Skipping English class was what got you in trouble, eh Missing?

Actually I had one hell of a time with writing and speaking in general! Computers were far more interesting at the time.

Theatre took care of the speaking! No problem there. After a completely dull performance, the teacher got me just stoked one day --to the point of acting out! (foul language, the works) She brushed all that off and told me that was what needed to happen on stage. Not sure it was legal, but it was effective! Most inhibitions dropped away to a room full of applause that evening. I think of her and that lesson nearly every month.

Writing evolved over time, through some college and on the job. Still evolving! Just when I think I've licked some element, *Bam* there I stumble and am humbled...

**I do not spell, nor syntax / grammar check forum posts or casual e-mail. At first this hurt, but it rapidly improves over time. Has some serious entertainment value, fairly often, as well!

Edit: I only skipped a few classes. I skipped them to get computer time, or build sets, etc... One asshole aside, I enjoyed school.

1977 - Littlesongs goes to church school. He says something merely smart, and not vulgar, and is dragged by his ear to the bathroom, held by his hair and forced to enjoy generous handfuls of Boraxo by a sadistic spinster. He spends the next eight years in and out of detention for being intelligent, but not blindly obedient. He is also spanked at school until his parents intervene, but continues to have to deal with fights, like most of the boys, and some of the girls, in his class.

1982 - Littlesongs loves music. He plays trombone, baritone and tuba. One day, he watches his out of control band teacher grab a fellow classmate by the back of the head and slam him into the cinder block wall of the rehearsal hall, breaking his nose, and splattering blood everywhere. At recess, some kids sneak off to play with "Chinese Stars" ordered from the back pages of Soldier of Fortune.

1985 - Littlesongs goes to public school. Although he does not participate, he soon discovers that most regular kids drink beer and smoke pot, instead of taking a lot of pills. He also sees that most of these kids do not have the access to as many knives and guns as his previous classmates did, and that the school actually checks for weapons in lockers and bags before a fight breaks out.

1987 - Littlesongs meets his friend after classes. His friend looks like hell. At lunch that day, a group of thugs took a baseball bat to him. Security did not intervene, and the administration was too intimidated to confront the skinheads who attacked him. They did call the police, but well after the fact. When the officers arrived, the administrators insisted that my friend must have fallen down the stairs and that he was on drugs.

1988 - Littlesongs shoots video at a basketball game at Grant High School. He and the Franklin team have to make a mad dash for the bus after the game when a huge fight breaks out. Not too many days later, an alleged participant in the fight, Ray Ray Winston, is shot dead at Grant.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

1990 - BrianL takes hunting rifle to school, puts it in his locker, and proceeds to go hunting after school with about 20 other guys who also brought their hunting rifles to school and put them in their lockers. Nobody has a second thought about it.

1990 - BrianL, sick of hearing fat jokes from one big goofball, finally calls his bluff. Fight ensues, result is his jaw being shattered and him out of school for about two months. Bully gets in trouble.

Any of those things happen now, the SWAT team is called out. 17 years ago in rural South Dakota, it was everyday life.

WOW!! Puts gun in locker in 1990!

In the 60's it was no big deal to have a gun at school, and everyone carried a knife.

Never know, when you might have to skin out a buffallo.

"In the 60's it was no big deal to have a gun at school"

Oh really? I never knew anyone who took a gun to school. And it would have been a BIG deal. It was the 60's and you're generalizing.

We even had NRA sponsered shooting classes, where gun safety was taught.

I watched an old rerun of Death Valley Days yesterday. It was about an out of control classroom in the old west. Then a pistol packing lady teacher showed up and her love of guns made the class pay attention and straighten up their lives.

This thread started out dumb, and has gotten dumberer since.

In the 60's at school you sat in neat orderly rows, addressed the teacher as Mr, Mrs, or Miss.
Had to go to the library to research term papers.
Were expected to do your homework ( I had a problem with that), Nearly everyone had a mother and father at home. With very few exceptions every ones father had a job. Nearly everyone had a dad that had served in WWII or Korea.
You talked respectfully to all adults.

The guys in class, that wern't going to college, accepted the fact they were going to be drafted, if they didnt enlist.

In the 60's Cheney and DUHbya weren't plotting how to blow up the world.

I probably should have been a bit clearer about the issue that I was trying to address when I mentioned my friend being on a high school rifle team. In the time and place where my friend attended high school (Franklin High in Portland, 1970-1974), the presence of a rifle team says that teenagers were trusted that they would not commit illegal or unsafe acts with firearms. When I attended high school in the early 1990s, this was not the case. We weren't even allowed to wear hats or bandanas, for fear that these would be used to identify gang affiliations or possibly to conceal small weapons. Why did this loss of trust occur? Was it justified?

I went to grade school in the 60's in Tigard. Toy guns weren't allowed in the school even bsck then.

But loaded real guns were OK at Burger King... Wow!

Man, that is a scary story. I wonder whatever happened to those boys? Probably serving life sentences in prison.


(P.S. I'm so glad you're back here!)

Neither Oregon or Washington or Oklahoma for that matter, prohibit people with a Conceled Weapons permit from taking a weapon onto school grounds.

Hi Mrs. Merkin

That was in Chicago, the Burger King story, I mean. Those boys went to Catholic school and were always pestering the public school kids. They were normal for Chicago teenagers. Nobody was scared. I think nobody could visualize gun accidents.

Thanks for the welcome back. I needed to get back here to add more XX chromosomes to the group. I wanted to get some stuff accomplished before coming back to message boards. Just some solutions for my autistic daughter's future.

I'm assuming that future is well?

We didn't have guns at all. Knives maybe, but those kids got beat up more than they got to use the knives.

Warner sez this thread is stupid. Yep, it is. We've lost something important. As a kid I do remember boundaries. Pulling a gun was an ADULT and UNDOABLE thing to do! One is different after having done that.

Some kids will do it today without even a second thought... why is that exactly?

I strongly suspect parents. I don't think it's the schools, though allowing more than token dicipline would help some. Maybe not..

It would be great if kids built forts, rode bikes and regularly exercised their imagination and bodies. As long as parents can hand them a plastic gun and sit them in front of a television, they do not have to talk to them or encourage them to risk going out and making friends. If folks are embarrassed when they visit their son in college and he still does nothing but play video games and masturbate in his off-time, well, what else was offered?

This is a radio board, so perhaps I should only vaguely mention a co-worker years ago who decided to clean his rifle on the station's workbench, after hours, at the high school. No, when word got out, that did not go over well at all.

Later, as an employee, I was chastised by the principal for wearing a hat on a frigid day. You see, nobody at Benson was/is allowed to wear a hat. So, the fact that I was lugging a ton of remote gear -- you digital kids have it soooo easy -- and needed the hat to stay warm as I was leaving, was lost on him.

Of course, this was the same crazy administrator who raced to the Lloyd Center MAX stop and whisked a stabbing victim away in his car to the hospital. By his way of thinking, it was the right thing to do -- rather than involve the police, an ambulance, or more importantly, the press in the matter. The enforcement of dress codes was his brilliant approach to quelling the escalating violence of his students.

I have a 1970 Franklin yearbook, and yes, Alfredo, you are absolutely correct, they had a team called the "Franklin Muskets" that shot in competition with other high schools. This was a well supervised group of kids educated thoroughly about firearms. (I see from flipping through that your friend and I might also have an English teacher in common.)

I think that if we treat guns with less respect than an automobile, require little skill testing and allow just about anybody to get a gun and use it, well, we reap what we sow, now don't we? I am all for gun rights, but I think that it is a privilege gained through education, like driving, not just a given, like chewing gum.

I haven't said it yet, but it is mighty nice to meet you Mrs. Bug.