My Christmas presents were tougher
Kids today are sissies.
And we’re all helping to create them.
It’s a day after Christmas, where my own kids have not ventured out of the house since they got home from their dad’s. And this after my daughter got her mountain bike (she headed for the bathroom instead, where she took a hot bath for an hour-and-a-half).
My son disappeared nearly before all the wrapping paper had been shoved into a plastic bag.
He got two DVDs and a new game for the GameCube. He was gone for hours.
I was one of the lucky kids. I’m fourth of five children, and as I’ve said before, once my parents got to me, running with scissors wasn’t all that bad.
When I was 10, I got my first BB gun (a Daisy, but not the Red Rider). This after my dad had two years before given me my first pocket knife (I’ve been packing a blade of some sort ever since).
The toys of today tend to be more digitally remastered. When a video game console – the Xbox 360 – comes out as the “must-have” gift of the season (where entrepreneurial souls were selling them for 10 times the sticker price, you know you’ve got a problem.
Toys of my youth carried names like Tonka and Schwinn, Daisy and Testors (model rocket engines).
Even our indoor toys were better, more dangerous.
I had the old Mattel Creepy Crawler set. This hot plate was thing of dangerous beauty. It plugged into an outlet and got really hot – so hot my brother and I were constantly burning our fingers (fast-forward to today’s Creepy Crawler makers, where a 250-watt bulb tries to do the same thing –pfffff).
I was under the age of 14 when I not only I got wood-burning kit, but a leather-stamping kit (yeah, I made a wallet, but I also crafted my own pair of knee-high moccasins, in the style of Kit Carson).
I remember fondly the Christmas where I got my first Zebco fishing rod and reel – and moved past those cane poles with a set amount of black thread line. I could now cast out farther than about four feet.
We’re producing indoor kids who lack the imagination to get past the blips and beeps of video games and actually make the tallest limb in the tree in the backyard the mast of a pirate ship.
I’m sure, once my daughter gets past the Jesse McCartney CD and the “Bring it On Again” DVD, we’ll get out for a ride (we’re both sporting Giant mountain bikes). I’m sure it’ll be a little difficult getting her out onto dirt that first time.
But once she does, there (hopefully) no turning back.
And we’re all helping to create them.
It’s a day after Christmas, where my own kids have not ventured out of the house since they got home from their dad’s. And this after my daughter got her mountain bike (she headed for the bathroom instead, where she took a hot bath for an hour-and-a-half).
My son disappeared nearly before all the wrapping paper had been shoved into a plastic bag.
He got two DVDs and a new game for the GameCube. He was gone for hours.
I was one of the lucky kids. I’m fourth of five children, and as I’ve said before, once my parents got to me, running with scissors wasn’t all that bad.
When I was 10, I got my first BB gun (a Daisy, but not the Red Rider). This after my dad had two years before given me my first pocket knife (I’ve been packing a blade of some sort ever since).
The toys of today tend to be more digitally remastered. When a video game console – the Xbox 360 – comes out as the “must-have” gift of the season (where entrepreneurial souls were selling them for 10 times the sticker price, you know you’ve got a problem.
Toys of my youth carried names like Tonka and Schwinn, Daisy and Testors (model rocket engines).
Even our indoor toys were better, more dangerous.
I had the old Mattel Creepy Crawler set. This hot plate was thing of dangerous beauty. It plugged into an outlet and got really hot – so hot my brother and I were constantly burning our fingers (fast-forward to today’s Creepy Crawler makers, where a 250-watt bulb tries to do the same thing –pfffff).
I was under the age of 14 when I not only I got wood-burning kit, but a leather-stamping kit (yeah, I made a wallet, but I also crafted my own pair of knee-high moccasins, in the style of Kit Carson).
I remember fondly the Christmas where I got my first Zebco fishing rod and reel – and moved past those cane poles with a set amount of black thread line. I could now cast out farther than about four feet.
We’re producing indoor kids who lack the imagination to get past the blips and beeps of video games and actually make the tallest limb in the tree in the backyard the mast of a pirate ship.
I’m sure, once my daughter gets past the Jesse McCartney CD and the “Bring it On Again” DVD, we’ll get out for a ride (we’re both sporting Giant mountain bikes). I’m sure it’ll be a little difficult getting her out onto dirt that first time.
But once she does, there (hopefully) no turning back.
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