Maybe it is just too much spare time
By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist
All sorts of learned people want to tell us what is wrong with modern society. For the last 20 years or so, the finger has been pointed at a lack of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).
That may not be the problem. Neither may be other social engineered faults the come up occasionally.
Go back 125 years; in fact, go back from the start of time until 125 years ago, and one will notice that starting about age 6 or 7, everyone worked about 12 hours per day, six days per week.
My own grandfather, starting at age 9 (which was in 1895), was a “lace boy” in Portsmouth, Ohio. This meant he was one of the boys working in a factory that made shoelaces.
Barefoot, they climbed over the running machinery to make splices in lace streams that had broken. We don’t allow jobs like this any more at any age. I am not suggesting we bring back such jobs.
It just wasn’t that long ago that everyone worked.
Sunday school, a name that arose in England, was originally real school with reading, writing and arithmetic. It was held on Sundays, often by a sponsoring church, to provide a way for working children to at least get a bit of education.
Today, we have sports and clubs for children, but they are voluntary and not as demanding as work (don’t write me, I know some of you parents think they are very demanding).
In the last 125 years, we have had the introduction of radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, toll-free telephone service and on and on and on.
This is a lot to absorb, and we have not done a very good job of absorbing it. These matters have, in some ways, created not only more free time, but they have also created greed to an extent never seen before.
Free time and greed, in its basest form, results in murder. Cain used a rock to kill his brother, Abel. It was cheap, just pick it up off the ground. Today, our weapons may not be so cheap, but they are designed to be impulsive.
No, I am not in favor of gun control. I am in favor of finding some ways to deal with the spare time issues of today and the greed of today.
Yes, I am asking a lot, but the learned people of today brag we can solve any problem.
Let’s focus here.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.
Very simple, yet insightful.
The only youthful experience that I have truly known is my own: A first generation Adams County dirt farmer in the 80's and 90's. Tobacco, hay, cattle, ear corn, hogs, firewood, and lumber. I played Knothole baseball and HS baseball, and I went to a couple basketball summer camps in Peebles hosted by Art Myers. The July County Fair was a welcomed break mid-summer. I spent my own money on pop, food, and those awesome milkshakes at the Dairy booth. Well in full-disclosure, my birthday was during that week, and I had monetary gifts of $5 and $20 from my out-of-State grandparents. That money was gone by Thursday, so Friday and Saturday, I was on my own. I drank way too much Mt. Dew during my teen years at the fair, but those pork tenderloins from the Manchester Lions were awesome. And if you had a 4-H project(s) that wasn't saleable livestock, the extension office gave you $4 per project on Friday! If memory serves. I lived like a Prince during Fair Week. Visiting friends, free-range spending, negotiating, budgeting, casual card games in the livestock barns, talking to girls... As long as my hogs were watered, fed, clean, and secure then my small little world was mine to conquer! That sledge hammer bell thing that measured PSI, or whatever, took the balance of my quarters at the Arcade Tent. "Ding Ding Ding!" (Matthew splits firewood in the off-season. The punching bag dingy game-thing rang every time too. Not to mention the duck shooting gimmick, radar gun speed pitch, and throw in a box of throw-pops for good measure...) By August it was the 3rd cutting of hay and topping tobacco The cattle herd(s) were low on grass and were pressing the electric fences. I would do everything but pray for, compulsory schools to start. I needed some relief and to reconnect with my chums and lady friends.