Whiplash

So back in High School (my ten year reunion is arriving. Gulp.) I was in the Marching Band in the Flag and Dance Corp. No, our Band Camp was nothing like the one in American Pie. At any rate, our flag director was pretty cool. We played Zeppelin, and Iron Man, and a lot of other things that I didn't get at the time but later realized how awesome it was. We had a tradition that during Iron Man we would all headbang. I once gave myself whiplash doing this. It rocked.

I used to blast my music, and loved the saying "If it's too loud, you are too old". Wil Wheaton mentioned once on his blog that he now totally gets the irony, as he, like me, finds it much too loud nowadays. The difference being that we never played our music so loud it could be heard two blocks away, or had the bass so high it rattled other cars. I just don't get it, you can't actually hear the music with the bass that high. And if you are in the car why do people over a hundred yards away need to be able to hear every word as well?

So I realize, yes, I am turning into an old fogie. I actually catch myself thinking of teenagers as "Hooligans". They play in the back and I'm tempted to tell them to stay off my lawn. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that supposed to be a truly old person thing to do?

Sometimes I think it is a decline in personal responsibility and courtesy. The way I was raised I would never have behaved the way kids do in front of their parents. I'd of gotten my ass whipped. But then again spanking and even saying "no" have gone so out of vogue that it doesn't surprise me. If kids learn there is no negative consequence for behaving inappropriately then why the hell wouldn't they?

I think it also has a lot to do with money. I don't mean rich people, but money given without being earned. How many of us actually had to do chores and yard work and the like to earn our allowances? That's not the case anymore, and so kids think that things should be handed to them out of some sort of right or entitlement. Over the 13 years I've been working I've seen a downward slide in the work ethic of teenagers. Whenever I meet on who actually work, and try, even if their quality isn't the best, it impresses me to no end. It's got to be better than their peers who do nothing and expect a paycheck anyway.

I was at the gas station earlier and someone was blasting music. Those of us in the checkout got into a conversation about it's stupidity and it got me thinking of how much I've changed since I was in school. I jokingly tell people I used to party with how boring I am now, but like most jokes it's based in truth. I don't know the last time I smoked pot (which is a good thing) or stayed out all night partying (again, good). But the thing is, while I know that it's good to grow up, I miss it sometimes. The freedom, the hedonsim, the laughter.

I just want a little debauchery over now and then. Is that too much to ask?