Scene from the Kung Flu Summer Fall re-Panic - Part 13


Posted On: Wednesday - September 23rd 2020 5:26PM MST
In Topics: 
  Kung Flu Stupidity

It's lucky number 13! Really, this post will be more upbeat, with none of the Curmudgeonry contained in all the other 12 of the series. It's been since September 7th that we posted the last one.



We were at the park in some of the nicest weather in a long time. There must have been 25 kids at a time, with lots coming and going over the total time period, with parents, friends of parents, black guys playing b-ball, and an older guy with a small dog, who the kids got a chance to pet. There was not a single face diaper in sight. I mean, not even stowed under the chin, and this was over a 2 hour period. Even the 70-odd y/o guy was without one, and the same with his little dog Toto too.

Adults weren't doing any of that jive either, so this park looked like it would have on a same nice day last year. (There's always the social distancing that Moms do from whomever they consider "creepy", but nobody was creepy there, I guess.) I don't know what social distancing means for kids, but they haven't been doing it since this Kung Flu Panic-fest started anyway.

Speaking of that, 4 or 5 boys were playing a social distancing game of some sorts, using pine branches to keep each other from getting somewhere on the playground equipment. These were the 6-9 y/o's who are too old to enjoy the playground equipment doing what it's designed for. Some of these branches were a good 2" in diameter and say, 2' long, so I was very surprised none of the Moms intervened. They are real Debbie Downers sometimes regarding sticks and rocks. I don't sweat it, myself - you can't fight evolution.

Nobody was hitting anybody, amazingly, but still, when a couple of the kids went to talk to their Moms, and they still had the sticks afterwards, I was very surprised. (I was too far away to hear.) Are the Moms mellowing out after all the hysteria? Perhaps it's hysteria overload, causing an opposite reaction. Maybe after such an obvious false alarm about Black Plague 2.0, they don't even believe that "sticks and stones" adage anymore*.

Let's hope that this time at the park was a harbinger of things to come. It did just turn to Fall, yesterday in fact, so we could at least say the Summer re-Panic is over.


* at least the 1st part. The 2nd part has long become erroneous as words CAN hurt you, apparently, from what I've seen on a thousand SJWs' tweets.

Comments:
Adam Smith
Friday - September 25th 2020 10:12AM MST
PS: Glad to hear you enjoyed a nice day at the park.

I hope this is an indication of the return to normalcy.


Bill H
Thursday - September 24th 2020 8:38AM MST
PS I was at the beach in Milwaukee one hot summer day... Yes, Milwaukee has beaches (Lake Michigan) and it has hot summer days, albeit not many of them. Anyway, bunches and bunches of people are laying around in the sun.

A car full of black people drives by, a convertible, and one guy is sitting up on the boot. He calls out at the top of his voice, "I don't care how long yu'all lay out there, you ain't never going to get as dark as I is." Much applause from the beach.

Would that happen today? Of course not.
Moderator
Thursday - September 24th 2020 6:57AM MST
PS: Oh, about Mohammad Ali, aka Casius Clay, that is a cool story. It remind me that sometimes a joke is just a joke, as with the quick anecdote I related a while back in a post. I made a joke about these 4 black guys' pants hanging down, as mine were tough to keep up too, as I'd left my belt back in the hotel room.

"Hey, I'm gonna be like you guys" I said, and not in the way meaning I wanted to emulate them, but in the manner "if I don't put a belt on." They liked that one.
Moderator
Thursday - September 24th 2020 6:53AM MST
PS: Robert, it is heartening for me to hear that Peak Stupidity is helpful to anyone in any way. I'm just glad to get readers who like the entertainment, if nothing else.

Yes, it was a different world, and I mean regarding your hardware store story too. Back when you could just use common-sense, unhindered by government agencies of all sorts, the guy could pay you when he felt like it, kick you in the ass if necessary, haha, and you could just go home if you didn't like it. It sounds like a good way to learn though.

There was a hardware store near me till about 10 years back that had almost everything I'd ever gone there to look for. Alas, on-line is the only place to really find what you need now. I just don't like the lack of ability to feel the merchandise and the wait time, and untrustworthiness in general. When that store quit having what I needed, I realized (though they didn't want to say), that the place was going to go out of business soon. They didn't want to get more inventory. Now, there's a bank there that doesn't do me a bit of good.
Robert
Wednesday - September 23rd 2020 11:08PM MST
PS: Mr. Stupidity, First, many thanks for your web site. Your writings, and even more your courtesy to such as I, have truly helped me navigate this current unpleasantness.

So, another story from the same store.

Around 13 or 14, I started hanging around the local hardware store, and would volunteer to sweep or mop the floors, or wash the windows. Every once in a while the owner would give me a quarter. (In fairness to him, he spent quite a bit of time on me, teaching me the name, function, and location of every item in the store; as well as a good bit of lock-smithing, appliance repair, and such. He also, literally, kicked my butt a few times.)

I was a bit of a runt, (some type of "mal-adsorption" syndrome, according to the family doctor) and looked like I was a skinny 11 or 12 year old. (In high school, I hit 5'9" before I hit 95 pounds.)

So, one summer afternoon I am washing the windows, and Mohammad Ali comes by with a couple of his friends/body guards. 'Nice to see a white boy working for a change.' Much laughter.

Mr. Ali recognized my work ethic, a memory I will always treasure.
Robert
Wednesday - September 23rd 2020 10:40PM MST
PS: Apropos of nothing other that mellow moms.

Fourty-some years ago, I was working a service job in a retail store. One time, with a line of customers, a baby in its mothers arms picked up a shiny razor blade (all too often left around after someone opened a box to stock the shelves) and put said razor blade in its mouth! I waved my arms, and alerted the mother. She calmly turned to the baby, grabbed it at the back of the jaws to make it open its mouth, removed the razor blade, and gave it to me.

She then apologized to me, saying, 'Oh, he's just at that age where he puts everything in his mouth.'

It was a different world.
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