Getting in Trouble
Chat with Pat

We couldn't get in trouble if we wanted. Someone was always watching. I think that is one of the problems with children who get in trouble today, no one is watching. We were watched like hawks by parents, neighbors, teachers, etc.

We walked to school, home for lunch and back (at least a mile each way) 4 times a day. Yes, I know the "in my day" but it was true.

Once on the way home at lunchtime a car pulled up with 2 men and 1 woman in it. They offered the four of us candy. We ran like hell. Told our parents, they told the neighbors, and teachers.

We were probably 5th graders and from then on for several weeks the 8th grade boys would have to follow us home (yes all 4 ways). We felt protected, the boys felt strong and important. People looking out for people. (I sometimes wonder if the people in that car were just nice people who happened to have some candy to share)

Sometimes we'd run into a pack of thin wild dogs running around fighting. We were so scared but if we stood real still when they came up to you they'd just move on. Having always had a dog at home helped, it was the cats that scared me the most. But you would always see an adult in a yard or porch on those streets watching to make sure nothing happened.

What do you think of the banning of some breeds of dogs that some people are suggesting? I feel it is just one more freedom being taken away, however I could be swayed the other way when I see how the dogs are abused and bred to kill. The owners that do that must be stopped.

What's your opinion? Thinking back, I don't remember anyone actually getting bit. I'm sure they did but even the wild dogs were not that vicious. Maybe because no one trained them to attack. Let them alone and they let you alone.

When one of my children was in the 7th grade a teacher called me to tell me they were walking home from school with a group and one of the boys was smoking. Not that my child smoked but that they were walking with someone who did so I should be alert so they didn't try it.

Yep, just like me they couldn't get in trouble if they tried.

Let's Chat and God Bless America,
Pat