Ralph Lewis wrote:
>
> >Ralph, didnt students fight when you were in high school?
>
> NO -- NEVER, I can't remember a fight ever happening in grade or high school.
> And this was when the movie "Blackboard Jungle"s was made (so everyone can
> guess my age now). Some "hoods" did
> carry switchblades but it was more of a fashion statement. Most of the "hoods"
> were really nice guys if you actually got to know them as I did in shop class.
Amazing. In 1974-75 I attended junior high in New York City, a "decent"
neighborhood in Bayside, Queens. Brawling was something I became
proficient at, whether I wanted to or not- I was a short fat kid with
glasses, an out of town accent, and a straight-A average... in short, a
pariah. I learned to fight dirty, strangling, poking eyes, kneeing
groins, and how to use a club and quarterstaff and broken bottle
(thankfully I only had to bluff with the bottle).
I never got into more than five fights in one day, though, and managed
to qualify to enter the Bronx High School of Science. My family left
New York before then, to return to the relative peace of Colorado- where
the fighting was far less, but not absent.
When were you in school, Ralph? Somehow I doubt if things have changed
nationally, you may have been in a remarkably peaceful place.
> >I dont know. When did all this civil behavior come to life?
> >I never saw much that resembled civil behavior until I went
> >to college.
>
> Perhaps when we let it die and we stoped telling pepple "that's not cool"
> or when we passed so many laws that everyone thought let the law and the
> police take care of it.
Perhaps so- and I like to think that my experience was the exception,
rather than the norm.
-- Doug Jones Rocket Plumber, XCOR Aerospace http://www.xcor-aerospace.com
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