Seen in Print

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[MurphOnMillerAve]

What would possess an entity to put up a sign saying that, I wonder.

A grumpy old curmudgeon that had no childhood...........

Dats what I figgerred. And lordknowz there are enough of them to go around.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

What would possess an entity to put up a sign saying that, I wonder.

A grumpy old curmudgeon that had no childhood...........

Dats what I figgerred. And lordknowz there are enough of them to go around.

And, also why I captured that one to post -- we have too many regulations and too much idiocy limiting children from having fun in the name of protecting them from themselves......

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Well, God knows, the li'l buggers can get into mischief, all right, as they adventure their way through life. But there is something to be said for their taking the chances necessary to do so. What is the alternative ? Keeping them safe locked-up in a room? Here's what I say we (the whole society and their families) do: teach them all we know and believe; listen to them; make them safe and healthy as we can; buy them stuff (and don't be cheep.)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Well, God knows, the li'l buggers can get into mischief, all right, as they adventure their way through life. But there is something to be said for their taking the chances necessary to do so. What is the alternative ? Keeping them safe locked-up in a room? Here's what I say we (the whole society and their families) do: teach them all we know and believe; listen to them; make them safe and healthy as we can; buy them stuff (and don't be cheep.)

Local county here tends to go with the keep them safe by locking them up at home and never letting them out on their own to do anything.......

In our youth, our parents turned us loose outside.

Balance is needed.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

There are times when the use of a hyphenated name is not the best of ideas.......

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Well, God knows, the li'l buggers can get into mischief, all right, as they adventure their way through life. But there is something to be said for their taking the chances necessary to do so. What is the alternative ? Keeping them safe locked-up in a room? Here's what I say we (the whole society and their families) do: teach them all we know and believe; listen to them; make them safe and healthy as we can; buy them stuff (and don't be cheep.)

Local county here tends to go with the keep them safe by locking them up at home and never letting them out on their own to do anything.......

In our youth, our parents turned us loose outside.

Balance is needed.

Yep. My mother's standard saying was, and I quote, "Go out and play. Don't be late for supper." Is it any wonder I have wanderlust?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

........and I quote, "Go out and play. Don't be late for supper." Is it any wonder I have wanderlust?

That was my youth as well - it was creative as toys and gadgets were at best very limited. We made stuff!

Wait! We still make stuff.......... Might there be some correlation???

[robert.]

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hi Robert, My memories of being at university were entirely different from that suggested by the cartoon. Instead, it was the greatest time of freedom and of being freed that I ever experienced in my young life. Indeed, university gave me a new birth. My heart, soul, and body left a steel mill town forever, equipped with the solid foundation such an upbringing can bestow, and took off for places, indeed, unknown. The real adventure began. Freedom began. Europe. New York City. All of it faced and enjoyed, having been equipped with knowledge far beyond the basics of high school and parochial elementary schools.

And I haven't shut-up since.
Murph

[MurphOnMillerAve]

........and I quote, "Go out and play. Don't be late for supper." Is it any wonder I have wanderlust?

That was my youth as well - it was creative as toys and gadgets were at best very limited. We made stuff!

Wait! We still make stuff.......... Might there be some correlation???...

We know there is. Your words here reminded me that as a boy I was happiest, in addition to those forays into the hills and woods of Pennsylvania, when I could plop my keister onto a pile of newly excavated dirt around the foundations of new homes under construction in my neighborhood, of which the number seemed endless. I dig and reshape vistas with my hands and sticks, dig tunnels, make bridges out of sticks, use American Bricks (I think that was the product's name) to construct miniature metropolises, and bring cars-n-trucks to travel the new roadways.

You just made me think. Does that sound anything like Layout Refinements and Moon Township..?
Murph

[rex desilets]

Perhaps I might jump in here.
I was raised in a Government settlement outside Tupelo (no, Elvis and I didn't know each other; he was two grades ahead of me). No TV, one radio. Activities were school (parents had expectations), Boy Scouts, piano, band, books. On the latter I was a voracious reader, to my Father's irritation. Build model airplanes. Tinker with my Lionel trains.
Parents couldn't afford a band instrument so I ended up with a bass horn (that's Sousaphone to the culturally attuned). Playing it well became an obsession.
Summers. Had a couple chores, cleaning my room, mowing the lawn and weeding our extensive vegetable garden. After that, I'd raid the refrigerator and my mother would ask if I were going to be home for supper. In those days, after WWII, the local war surplus store had a huge stock of stuff available for the small change a boy night dig up. We had complete freedom and the small group of boys of similar age camped outside much of the summer in our ex-GI stuff. We had freedom to go anywhere we wanted, and did.The Prime Directive was to do no bad things to anyone else's property and to treat grownups with respect (never, ever called a grownup by his or her first name, unless something like Aunt Mary). Failure to obey the the Directive was followed by physical discipline. Misbehaving boys in school were sent to the Principal's office, there to be chastised by a paddle to the backside. My parents told me if that ever happened to me I'd get worse when I got home.
We all had BB guns, some of the more affluent had .22 rifles.
Our favorite sport in summer was ambushing cars in the local lover's lane. We'd creep up to a car, surround it, and jump up hollering. Got shot at a couple of times.
My children had some freedom, too, more limited by living in suburbia than my circumstances . Thank heaven there was no CPS back then.
I surely feel bad for today's suffocated children.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Hi Robert, My memories of being at university were entirely different from that suggested by the cartoon.

Those were different times...

All the poets studied rules of verse,
And the ladies, they rolled their eyes

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[MurphOnMillerAve]

The above, generously provided, cheeky photo is totally believable. I've seen bigger, and with more suffering on the part of a deeply involved, intimate witness to the horror.

BTW, is the new avatar a well-fed militant bedbug?