Smear The Queer

I was torturing myself last evening and into the wee hours of the morning watching the Chicago Cubs. They were in Milwaukee and the teams were playing before a packed house. Other than watching events I take notice of what's going on around me. If you haven't already you can do an experiment of observation yourself to prove how unimaginative the populace has become. It doesn't matter if you're at a movie, the Indianapolis 500, an Ohio State Buckeye basketball game or Brewer stadium in Milwaukee. It's almost impossible, and I'm about to become sexist, to find people who aren't on an ipod or cell phone. Women, more than men, are guilty of this but guys do their fair share of texting.
I am so happy I was able to grow up in a time when television didn't dominate our daily existence. When we were kids we made our own fun. During the day we'd play a game called Annie-Annie Over. It could be done with only two kids. We'd find a house with a high roof. The Brown home in Boone on 1st street was a good one. We'd take any kind of ball and throw it over the apex of the roof. If the kid caught the ball he'd come running around the house and fire the ball at you. If he hit you with it he scored a point. It was important that just prior to the throw you announced, "Annie Annie Over", so the other guy would be ready to catch it. If the ball didn't make it over the roof  you then shouted out "Pigtails".This was a shortened way of saying, "I goofed because I made a lousy throw so give me another chance". We played games called kick the can. At night, during the summer months and under street lights, there were all kinds of tag games to be played. Here's something else we did. In summer, at night time and after a rain, Dick Musser and I would go night crawler hunting. Marv Elverts had the very best yard for the very biggest and longest worms. Kids don't hunt 'wigglies' anymore. Maybe it's because people need to have all kinds of chemicals on their yard. We fertilized when our kids were growing up except, I made sure the backyard, out of public view, was chemical free. Kids and dirt; they go together.
When was the last time you saw children playing any kind of made up games? It doesn't happen often because their imagination is provided for them. The computer provides and creates the fun. Recently, I saw some youngsters playing baseball without adult supervision. I wanted to go home, get a camera and take their picture. It was a Kodak moment worthy of the Smithsonian.
I was reading an article from Breitbart this morning and it was about the teaming up of conservative radio host and practicing Orthodox Jew, Dennis Prager. His partner in this venture is the very irreverent atheist comedian, Adam Carolla. The are doing a two man traveling show bemoaning Obama, liberalism and political correctness. The article brought back memories of things that cannot be done anymore. You might have to be a guy to appreciate the subject matter but there are certainly other examples for how it could apply to the female side. We played dodgeball when I was a kid. We'd do it in school or in a school yard. There was a certain aspect to the game and this is how Carolla explains it. "I feel sorry for my young son that he'll never have the opportunity to enjoy a game of Smear the Queer". I thought that was one of the funniest lines I've heard in awhile because it's a truism. In the game and at it's conclusion to determine a winner, there might be six kids on one side of a line with volleyballs and a single guy on the other with none. All of a sudden someone would yell out: "SMEAR  THE QUEER" and all six balls would be blasting into the lone victim. Try that in school and you'd be in jail or, at the very least, the butt of jokes from Ed Schultz or Rachel Maddow or, be placed in in-school detention for the rest of your life. Oh, for the good old days when memories were created. Today, our youth will be saying, "Remember the time you were at the movie and I was on the city bus and I texted you. Wasn't that hilarious?
Read the Breitbart article. It's worth the effort.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/05/09/carolla-prager-tour