;06

Board games, many of our favourite past times. This was the stuff you could do almost anywhere at anytime with anyone. You can literally go up to your grandmother and simply ask to play this and it was almost an automatic yes. You can sit there, in the blazing hot sun with your friends, at a park and just pop out a board game and it was almost guaranteed they would immediately be down to play. Of course, I only say park because back in the day before I moved to the city I used to live literally an alley-way from a park so we could do almost anything that didn't require electricty [beyond battery powered anyways]. The only condition was don't lose the pieces because well, when you lose even one piece of a game that is required you're hooped for life. Due to our habit of losing things even in our own home, we weren't able to always get access clearance to go the park with a board game but we did find other things to do which is always good.

Now I'm a kid who has played an insane amount of board games, or games in general. Chess, checkers, dominos, monopoly, stratego, risk. The list is endless. My dad was a pretty big board game enthusiast. Although, playing board games wasn't usually his idea, but he did have fun and he'd usually kick our sorry little butts. But the thing is he played. Which back then, in the decade of 1990's, parents weren't children enthusiasts. I mean, they always sent the kids in to the basement or to the park or outside in general to get rid of us. To teach us and show us the real world. For us to learn to do things on our own and advance our minds. That and they wanted the television all to themselves. But now a days? That's all parents want to do. I mean, back from where I come from, it was abnormal for any child to be friends with and hang out at home with their family. You had to have had no friends to do so or it had to be winter which makes the entire world go in to hibernation. Now, because parents have become so paranoid on whats going on out in the world, they won't even let their kids step two feet out the door without holding their hand. I have to ask, what happened?

What happened to going over to people's houses without asking, but mere telling. Phoning your parents from your friend's house to tell them you won't be coming home because you're hanging out, and that was the best way to do it because parents couldn't say no since you're already there! What happened to spontaneously going over to your friend's house, knocking on the door, asking for them and all of you just hanging out at a park or some parking lot or something? I mean, due to such a high rate of Amber Alerts, Child Pornography raids and so on, everything has gotten everyone paranoid it could happen to their children. Well not could. Paranoia messes with your mind saying it will happen. And that produces everything to be in what is called a "play-date" where the kid's parents phone each other and arrange a date in which the children can hang out. How weak is that?

I mean, the people and our government complain today about the stupidity of children, how obese they are and how vulnerable they are. And they all point fingers around at each other but can never point the fingers at the person they should truly point them at; themselves. Like honestly. I'm not fat. Why? Because I actually went outside and played when I wanted to and I had to. I never had to ask anyone to do something fun [considering it didn't harm anyone or myself, ect.] I could go out to the park with my friends and all I had to say was "I'll be back by dinner time." Not this "Oh well whats Johnny's phone number, I would like to speak to his mother, maybe we can set something up for Tuesday!" Guess what mom. I'm 10, and I want to play now. Not Tuesday! I'm not stupid. Why? Because I never had the option until highschool to use a calcuator for math, the option to opt things out due to religious beliefs or even difficulty in science or social studies. Hell, I barely had access to a computer for english. Everything was hand written. Just the way it is meant to be. But now, calculators are mandatory, a questionaire is needed to be filled out about the curriculam in which you get to basically choose what you want to study [oh gee, I'm a kid and I want to do nothing but eat, play and piss myself... I think NOTHING!] and I've just been updated, as of grade four... FOUR people, are you listening? As of grade four, laptops are becoming mandatory. That just adds to the problem of the lack of intellegence in our society today! And that has GOT to add to our obesity problem.

So while people are freaking out, my family is going to remain sane. My sister has declared as provider of her child, she will not be signing the waiver for the laptop rule for next year at her child's school and they can deal with hand-written work. Whenever I bare children, they will also follow the rules of back how I was raised; right. They will love to go outside and be with what nature intended. They will hand write everything and add everything using their brain [or how I did and still do it. Fingers people.] And they will learn whatever the teacher has in their daily planner. Even if it's something that disproves God, he or she will be completely open minded and eventually learn to make decisions for themselves! And maybe, just maybe, it can rub off on some other children. And maybe, just maybe, they'll go outside and play a nice board game like Monopoly [or RISK, still being my favourite of all time!] in the hot sun at the local park unsupervised [because I should be able to trust my neighbourhood or else I wouldn't live there], and enjoy every moment they have because lets face it, you only live once!

--Too Much Thought

[PS. Quick update. I know until this time I only had two followers! My girlfriend _playpen and her sister Craving The Cupcakes [whom probably made this all possible, all for being featured on her SITS blog!] but now I have a lovely third follower! Casey Byrd , stand up and take a bow! Just kidding. But seriously, since I'm just starting up, I'll probably thank my first like, ten followers for being there from the very beginning. Sorry for the long blog post, but this is why I'm the nostalgic ranter. Enjoy!]