Summer Days
I am still hurting, I am still mad.
But there are other things in the world to look at, and you can still be trying to figure out what you can do while doing something else.
Summer vacation is here for my daughter. She is now finished with junior high and is onto high school.
It's also almost her 15th birthday. I think your kid's birthday by nature makes you reflect on what you were doing at their age. When I was 15, we could still go to Drive-In movies. The theatre (that would no longer be on the outskirts of the city) has long since blown up. The summer for us was spent bouncing from my house, to a friend's house, and then back again.
It was an extended sleepover. Days were spent outside, avoiding parents and younger siblings. But hoping that maybe some older siblings with a car would take pity on us and take us somewhere fun, or buy us treats.
When the stampede came around, we would go as many times as possible. We didn't think about much when on the grounds, other than which ride should we go on next, and should we share that corndog now or later?
My daughter and a few of her friends will be attending the stampede without parents for the first time this year. Instead of the rolls of tickets that I had, and making sure you had enough for the ride that you wanted to, they now have unlimited ride passes.
My childhood was running free, maybe checking in with mom every day or every other day. My daughter, so far, hasn't lived that life. And to be honest, I don't know if she will. I am not sure if that is more personality-based for her, or if it is a reflection of the change that happened in society.
Stranger danger was definitely a thing when I was growing up, we were aware that adults (especially the men) were not all to be trusted, but for the most part, we hung out in large groups. I don't think the change is just more helicopter parents alone, more of an awareness. Also, the kids today (this makes me sound like an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn) just don't seem to be as resilient as we were.
They are exposed to way more in some ways, thanks to the internet and most homes having no stay-at-home parents constantly supervising. And yet, they seem to be softer.
I guess I don't really know what the answer is. I do know though that when she is stampeding, I will be asking for check-ins, and we have talked about who to avoid and where to go for help. Plus, a group of teenage girls may be one of the most frightening things to approach in the free world. I know that they need to go out and do these things without their parents. And I am very happy that I don't have to go to the stampede. And I am very, very happy that she will be leaving the house. And that maybe she will get brave enough to ride my favorite rise as a kid, The Zipper. Seen below.
Music Corner
For today I picked an artist that I saw the last time I went to the stampede (I feel like if you don't know what the Calgary Stampede is, you should really google it) evening show that happens after the rodeo and chuckwagons. Andy Kim was there, and of course, he sang "Rock Me Gently".
The song itself was released as a single in 1974, it would be his last big hit. Kim himself is still kicking at 75,is still performing, and is still married to the former daughter-in-law of Bing Crosby. In July 2018, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
Shopping Corner
The First Stampede of Flores LaDue
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