Kids These Days

So when did I get so old?

I'm visiting my parents this weekend, so I took the Niagara Falls train after work yesterday. Going through Hamilton our car was hit not once, not twice, but THREE times by kids throwing stuff at the train. The second hit shattered one of the windows. Luckily they're double-paned windows with about four inches between the panes, and the glass is safety glass, but come on.

All I could think was I hope they catch those little buggers. Because kids think they can get away with anything. Why? Because that's what we teach them.

In February some kids threw a brick off an overpass for fun - the driver of the car it hit has to undergo reconstructive surgery now, and would have died if her brother hadn't been in the car to take over the wheel when the chunk of concrete came through the window and opened up her face. As far as I know they've never caught the person who did this - and if they do, if the person's a 'young offender', they'll get off with a warning or a slap on the wrist.

We're taught, on a daily basis, that someone else is always to blame for the things we do. Are you overweight? Don't exercise or start eating right, just sue McDonald's. Does your kid start fights? Must be the other kid's fault.

And why are they suddenly smoking? I mean, my parents have an excuse, they didn't know it was bad for them. They can blame the tobacco companies for misleading them. But now? Come on, in Kindergarten they showed us the pix of the healthy lung and the smoker's lung, and that's all it took. (The picture I attached here is, of course, of a smoker's lung - wouldn't that image be enough?) Kids now are growing up knowing you will DIE, your will get emphysema and cancer and all kinds of stuff, and they do it anyway. Then they get sick and want to SUE.

Me, I know there are things that are my own fault. I can complain about McDonald's being full of junk, but I'm the one who goes there, they don't chase me down.

Gah, I feel so old.

Later

My Dad found my old Knit Magic machine in the basement (like the picture, but with no yarn, or tension adjuster). Of course it never worked when I got it (hand-me-down from cousins I think) but I couldn't part with it. And it won't work now of course, it's really stiff. But I want to take it apart and see how it works. Maybe I can fix it, then if I need to do anything in a tube I can just crank the wheel and presto! Maybe I'll feel less old playing with this plastic toy!

I know I can get the equivalent now, relatively cheaply, but it's just that I want to make this one work...