Why is this board so dead this year??

[Andybev01]

It's for me.

Celebrating the holidays is a comfort in a world that seems lacking.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Walpurgisnacht, if I remember correctly is also the polar oposite. As Halloween comes in Fall, Walpurgisnact comes in Spring. I actually know a few people who do a "Little Christmas" observance every June 25th, because that is the exact half way point to Christmas. I have been in on some of that. I so like the concept of Walpurgisnact, however and I am assuming that it's on April 30th, as Halloween is on the very last day of October. At any rate, I'll also still be observing Easter on that day because Easter Sunday will be on the 17th of April this year.

Maybe I'll paint a jack o'lantern on an Easter Egg or something. For the most part, I might just screen a horror film and play the sound track album to "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." I'll be screening the tv show of the same name on "Little Halloween" on May 13th.

Mike

[Andybev01]

Yup, it's on the last day of April.

[Pumpkin_Head]

I like to encorporate a little Halloween year round with a monster movie or a horror related tv show once in a while.
Starting on February 1st, I am going to start screening the entire original series of "Dark Shadows." That will make for a little Halloween spirit through out the year.

I don't know if any of you remember or not, but I remember telling scary stories around a camp fire was all the rage when I was a kid. That was a favorite Summer time activity. I remember how my buddies and I would sneak off to 'The Pits' to build a camp fire and tell each other stories that we heard from others over the years. By the way, I have a very funny/scary story I can relate about 'The Pits" if I haven't already posted it in an earlier thread.

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I don't think you told that story yet Mike, I'd like to hear it.

When we were kids we would tell scary stories around the campfire at summer camp, lots of great memories there.

The Friday the 13th movies were at the height of their popularity when we were kids at summer camp, and since the adults let us watch them on VHS you could imagine we were terrified that someone was going show up and try to kill us when we were there, and the camp counselors knew we were scared so one of them would always dress up as Jason just to mess with us.

Around the same time there was a show called Are You Afraid of the Dark? it was about a group of teens that met in the woods around the campfire and they told scary stories, while it was aimed at kids just like the show Goosebumps, there were some very creepy stories on the show that still stick with me to this day. There was even a modern reboot that came out a couple of years ago and it was pretty good.

[Pumpkin_Head]

HeadlessHorseman, like I said, I may have told this story before, but here goes anyway, because it is a good story, and it really happened.

Well, first of all, "The Pits" was a wooded area just outside the Chicago neighborhood known as Mt. Greenwood. It was actually right outside the Chicago city limits. It was a known hang-out where kids played and scared the bejeebers out of each other. We thought 'wouldn't it be "cool" to have a camp out there," so we asked our parents, and our parents told us NO in no uncertain words. So we were a bit disappointed then I got the "brilliant" idea of sneaking there. So the 4 of us, Bob, Ray, Rick and I, hatched up a scheme while hanging out in Rick's basement, and after we allowed 2 weeks to go by, we took Bob's and Ray's tents, some hot dogs, buns, potato chips and marshmallows, sleeping bags amd my transistor radio and we were on our bikes and off to "The Pits" for a fun night of camping and scary stories.

Here is where things went 'South for Winter.' We didn't know if it was because Rick's little sister was eavesdropping on us when we were making our plans, and 'narked' on or, or perhaps 2 weeks wasn't enough time to allow but I told my parents I would be staying with Bob, Rick told his parents he would be staying with Ray, and so fourth and so on, but an eavesdropper, or whatever notwithstanding, our parents got smart to our little 'lark,' and our dads decided to teach us a lesson.

It was about 11:00pm or so, and we were listening to WLS on my transistor radio and sitting around our campfire when suddenly, our dads snuck up behind us and GRABBED US FROM BEHIND! When we realized it was our dads, we were relieved that it wasn't a kidnappers, but that turned out to be of little consolation when we started contemplating the punishment that would be meted out when we got home.

We didn't go to 'The Pits' the rest of that summer. When we did go back to 'The Pits,' after that, it was just for an hour or two of scaring each other and maybe a campfire, then we would go home.

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, like you said, it's a good thing it was only your fathers or the situation could have been far worse. Just wondering, why didn't your parents want you to go to begin with, did the place have a bad reputation or was there some other reason?

[Pumpkin_Head]

It was a known hand out for 'undesirables' (for lack of a better term). It was also private property, all though it was abandoned for years. The reason why we called it 'The Pits,' was because Mt. Greenwood use to be it's own town until it was anexed into the City of Chicago in 1920. 'The Pits' was the old sewage disposal system for the town of Mt. Greenwood, and then a man purchased the land after Mt. Greenwood (the neighborhood) was hooked into the Chicago sewer system. The buyer's intention was to build and open an amusement park, but the Mt. Greenwood Civic Association stopped him because they were worried about the 'riff raff' an amusement park would attract. Then he tried to sub device it, but again, due ro the Civic Association's racist attitudes of the time, they were afraid that he would sell to non whites. The property stood abandoned for years, used mainly by kids of all ages as a play ground. There were a few arrests for drugs at 'the pits,' a 'Hippy Commun" was set up there, but they were rousted out of there by the police. Anyway, after the original buyer died, his son was finally allowed to build a couple of strip malls on the property. This was around 1998 or 1999. From 1920 to about that time, it was a favorite hand-out for many kids, though.

As for our parents now allowing us to camp out there, Bob Ray and I were 10 years old, and Rick was 9. An unsupervised camp out with 3 10 year old's and a 9 year old was even by early 1970s standards, not a good idea, in the eyes of most sane parents. Now that I'm 61, I agree that they made the right decision, but back then......well what the hey. We were kids. What did we know??

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

When you're a kid you just think that your parents are overreacting, but as a adult you realize they're absolutely right, and you understand that age is too young to be out there without a adult with them. I remember when we were kids during the summer we would get up at the crack of dawn and get on our bikes to go play with our friends and we would get home at 10pm and our parents didn't have to worry about us, and we didn't even have cellphones back then for them to stay in contact with us. The world was a different place when I was growing up in the 80s, and while It was still dangerous back then, the world today is far worse.

I've noticed that kids today are just plain stupid when compared to previous generations, and when I say kids, I actually mean teens today. I don't know how many times I read the news and there Is always a story about some young idiot that died from taking a selfie on a cliff, or laid in the middle of the road on a dare, or ate detergent pods, or cooking chicken in cough syrup, or some other stupid reason, and I'm not even going to mention the other bad things they do.

I think the kids today just don't have a filter on the content they're exposed to, either in the real world or online, and they don't have anyone to steer them the right way as most parents today apparently don't have the time or even know how to talk with their kids about things like that, they just let the media raise them so the kids just watch some uneducated person on youtube and they think this is the way it is. I only let my kids have access to the internet when my wife and I are there with them, and I told them they can't have any social media accounts until they're old enough to use it responsibly.

Maybe I'm starting to sound like the old people I knew when I was a kid, complaining about these dang youngins, but at least we didn't go around doing stupid things like they do today. I know from talking with other parents that I'm not the only person that feels this way, as most of us are worried about what the world will be like when our kids are in their teens. I suppose the only thing we can do is teach them well, and hope for the best, and maybe they will have the common sense to do the right thing.

[Pumpkin_Head]

Most of the kids feel DEPRIVED if they don't have a body full of tattoos, piercings, and the like. They feel DEPRIVED if they don't have cell phones and internet access. Well you can thank Hollywood for the former, and the school system plays a huge part in the latter now a days as homework, studying and in some cases even tests are all done online these days. It's enough to make a dog bite his father. Like I said, I grew up through the 1970s, when the "cool" thing to do was sneak a cigarette behind my father's garage. That was a nasty enough habit, but at least I wasn't walking the streets of Chicago drunk or stoned at the 'ripe old age' of 13 or 14. And don't even get me started on the way they drive cars. When I rode a motorcycle, there were two occasions I was almost killed by some 'teeny bopper' who was yacking on his or her cell phone while driving. I remember another time, back in the 1990s that a couple of teenagers got together and decided to take one of the kid's father's 18 wheeler for a "spin," and got drunk while they did it. The truck was attached to one of these car carrier trailers for a deliver to a local auto dealership. To make a long story short, they got drunk, lost control of the truck, plowed into an ATM machine and tipped over on it's side. There were dollar bills and brand new Chevy's strewn all about tht bank's drive-through, and all I could say at the time is I was SO GLAD I didn't have to explain that one to the insurance adjuster. To boot, the chowder head driving that truck did NOT have a commercial drivers license. Again, long story short, they were both arrested for underage drinking, the driver was arrested for driving without proper license AND DUI. This happened back in the 90s. Factor in the legalized marijuana that now makes it more available to under aged persons, and it's no wonder why things are so screwed up with the younger generation.

Sort of makes sneaking off to "The Pits" for a forbidden camp-out seem pretty paltry by comparison. All though, 9 and 10 year olds don't boost motor vehicle typically.

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Man, that car carrier story is nuts, they should be glad it happened back then, because if that was today the charges would be worse for anyone involved.

I have some nieces and nephews that are older than my kids around 10-12, and I watch the way they, and other kids their age demand everything be handed to them right away, and they swear at their parents, and the parents just give them what they want. When I was a kid if I ever spoke to my parents that way my father would have thrown me trough a wall. I think that's why people my age don't want to hit their kids, because we remember what it's like to get your butt whipped, that's why I will never hit my kids, but you can still teach your kids discipline without hitting them.

As for booze and drugs, when I was 13 I knew plenty of kids that were getting drunk and stoned because they had easy access to it, some of them even got it from their parents or older kids. I'm thankful that my parents were strict about that stuff and taught me right, as it scares me to think what the kids I knew back then are like with their kids now.

I read a story in the news awhile back where a parent was charged for giving their kid marijuana Skittles, I didn't even know such a thing existed until I heard the story, and you have to wonder WHY would they even make a product like that? when they KNOW that little kids are going to want Skittles candy. It's just insane the way things are today.

I'm no saint, like most kids back then I did my share of bad things, but I certainly didn't cross the line, and I always respected my parents. Like you said, the things kids did back then were nothing compared to the kids today.

[Andybev01]

"...most of us are worried about what the world will be like when our kids are in their teens."

I'd be more worried about when you get to the point when you need them to care for you in your old age.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I'm not worried about that for one single second. While it is assumed or even expected that kids should take care of their parents when they reach old age, and from a traditional and moral standpoint that is the way it should be, I wouldn't ever place that burden on my kids. I hope that by that point they will be living their own independent lives, and if my wife and I are incapable of taking care of ourselves then we will either get a live in caregiver to help us, or just die, but either way that responsibility won't ever go to my kids.

I know for sure that we won't ever go to a old folks home, because that's just not something we do in this family. My mother is in her 60s and she lives alone and she is fully independent, and she said no matter what happens to her she won't leave her home, she wants to die there and I will respect her wishes.

If anything, I should be more worried about the disturbing fact that this current generation of millennials doesn't want to leave home when they reach the appropriate age. Some of them actually do get jobs and go to college, but still live at home because they can't afford to live on their own, while others just leach on their parents because they don't have any direction and they know their parents will take care of them regardless of it.

I know that with the way the world is today it's hard for young people to make it out there, and it's not always their fault as the system is set up against them. By the time they get out of college they're already drowning in debt, then when they get a job the cost of living is so expensive they can barely afford to eat or cover rent, and don't even get me started on their dependency on credit cards and the debt they rack up from the interest alone. I saw on the news that young people today will have to work twice as long as we did to afford their own home, and even then some of them still won't be able to. Honestly, it's just unfair to them.

I have awhile until my kids grow up and I have to deal with that, but I will raise them as best as I can and teach them to be independent so they won't need me. But if the world goes to hell by then at least they will have this house, and my mothers house there for them as we own both homes fully paid, so they don't have to worry about it.

[Pumpkin_Head]

When I was a kid, my fathers favorite "child development" tool was his right hand, and my mothers favorite "child development tool" was my dad's belt. Cussing, or swearing, ESPECIALLY when God's name was used got us spanked, even if we weren't directing it at them. It was the same deal at St. Christina's School. You watched your language, and you showed respect for the teachers, or you got a pointer laid across the palm of your hand. If it got bad enough you got sent to the principal's office to face the "board of education." The 'board of education' was a wooden padel that was laid across something else after we bent over. Additionaly the principal would call our parents and we would 2 spankings for the price of one. We were taught respect.

As for old age, I am 61, and am already looking down the barrel of that gun as we speak. My health is not at it's best, but at least I can live independently and alone. I never married or had any kids of my own. Luckily I do have my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews who woudl be more then happy to help me out in a time of crises, but I would never even think of moving in with any of them. If things got bad enough I would seriously consider moving into an assisted living place, but NEVER a nursing home. The only problem if I had to move into such a place would be my stereo system. I would have to really play it cool. But at any rate, as I get older I can contemplate that later.

Mike

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, hopefully as you get older you can maintain your independence until the end comes, and enjoy your music on your terms.

Believe me, I know exactly what you mean about learning respect. My parents made sure that we did. I think you can tell just by the way I refer to my parents as mother and father as opposed to the more commonly used mom and dad, that they raised us old fashioned. I still address the older people that I interact with as Mr. or Mrs. to this day, even if they tell me to address them by their first name I find it hard to do so because those values were instilled in me from when I was young.

I teach my kids the same morals and manners that we learned growing up but I approach it differently, I'm not mean or cold towards them the way my father was to us. I know it wasn't directly his fault because his father raised him so strictly, and I guess that men back then thought that was just how you were supposed to be when raising kids. But I think there has to be a time when certain old practices just have to stop. Like I said, you can still teach kids discipline without hitting them, that's why I have never, and will never hit my kids, regardless of what other people say.