I am forever grateful to have been able to grow up in the time frame
that I did. I won’t tell you my age dear reader but I do remember when Saturday
mornings were for cartoons. On nearly every channel. I also remember when you
had to use a dial up connection and lord help you if you tried to connect while
dad was waiting on an important call or worse already on that call. I remember the
time before cell phones when we had to use payphones and when you told someone you
would be there at 2 and you did cause there was no easy way to tell the other
that you were gonna be late. That’s the timeframe I’m talking about. The time
before cell phones and the internet and yes I’m only talking some 20-30 years
ago in reality. Which is sad and scary at the same time.
Mostly I’m talking about that timeframe where a 300 pound girl didn’t
try out for cheerleading and wasn’t praised for “showing people that the world
doesn’t dictate beauty”. Or the special needs kid didn’t get to “make a
touchdown” while all the other players just stood there so little Johnny could
have his moment in the sun. Yes those are two fantastic things. Very admirable of
the teams to let them have that moment and of the girl to have the confidence
she needs to put that outfit on. Don’t get me wrong. What I’m talking about is
that time when it was ok to look at Steve and say “you can’t be the lead in the
play but we would love for you to help out with the scenery” and it had nothing
to do with anything other than Steve not really being talented enough to be on
the stage and it was ok to tell him that and Steve's mom didn't get the local news involved or start a campaign to get a teacher fired.
When I was in middle school I didn’t make the Volleyball team for 3
years in a row. One of my friends did. She was taller and able to block better
than I could. I went to every game. When we got into High School I tried out
again after spending a summer working on my serve. I still couldn’t block, I’m
a short bitch after all, but I had the best serve on the team. One of the other
players could block but couldn’t serve to save her life. So she’d come in and
play the front row and when it was time for her to serve I’d come in and play
back row. Then we’d swap out. It was a fantastic system really and I played
Volleyball for 3 years until I hurt my knee my sr. year during a game and had to sit out. My point
was not making the team forced me to find my nitch. Forced me to figure out where
I best fit in and how I could help my team. I would have either figured it out
or found another area to focus on. Kids today don’t really get that. Most
school teams are now set up to everyone that tries out makes the team.
It’s not just sports however. Not everyone can be the jock, or the
brain, and some kids are just there. That’s how life was back then and now
everyone feels like they have to be special. My heart breaks for these kids
that spend their days being video taped by mom and dad in the hopes they do
something that “goes viral.” That little 3 or 4 year old who sits in those
videos talking about grown folk business like a grown up makes me cringe. I wonder
how many takes they made her do before she got it right. I also wonder how long
it took mom to create that spontaneous cute rant that the little girls is giving
cause I’m sorry but no she didn’t come up with that alone on the top of her
head. She just didn’t. You know who I’m talking about ….. this kid.
What I’m saying is that these kids don’t get to be kids. They don’t
get to run around the playground and make noise they don’t get to say something
cute and walk away. No they are practicing and instead of running around to
make noise they are running around to get that shot they need to get. Over the
weekend I watched a video of a young boy on the potty (for the first time) and he
was cracking his dad up. So mom comes in with the camera to recreate the moment.
At this point the dad’s setting the little boy up to recreate the incident and
is now at the point of laughing so hard he’s crying. The little boy immediately
becomes concerned cause his dad is sad. He doesn’t understand the concept of happy
tears. This was a great moment and frankly a funny video but the moment this
young man and his father was having before he pulled out a camera was likely a priceless
one. I wish the dad had stayed in the moment and just let it have been a
moment.
However it was cute so ….. here ……….
Have a great Sunday ….
Marcy
@beaslma
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