The last four days of December were pleasant days for me.
Each day was greeted by an early morning phone call asking me what the weather was like up here in cattle country. Fortunately for me, unlike last year, I was able to answer each and every day that we had little snow and the forecast promised sunny skies. “Good” was the answer to each morning’s call. “Are you going to be home? We would like to pop up and see you.”
As a result I ended up having lunch at four different restaurants with four different longtime friends and equally longtime readers of my column. Needless to say we over-ate, lingering longer than we should have; having all come from the old school, we were taught to not talk with our mouths full. But not having seen each other for such a long time, we needed to chat about many fond long ago memories.
But it was rather disheartening that on each daily occasion I noted one thing in common among the young late teen and early 20 age groups that crowded most of the other tables.
None of them, both male and female, removed their multi-angled peaked caps, nor in addition to just gulping their food, seemed to be able to express themselves without uttering a single sentence that lacked several expletives which are simply not found in the dictionary.
Perhaps, as I’ve aged, I have just become a bitchy old man, but it seems to me that we have strayed a long way from our traditional way of getting a point across when we have to use foul language in order to express ourselves.
To whom should we throw the blame? I am sure it is not the teachers, although I know their hands are strongly tied when it comes to chastising a child for misbehaving. Parents are criticized continually if they so much as lay a hand on a child for acting up. In my childhood days if anyone uttered a swear word, as they were called back then, you could well expect a slap across the mouth with the back of one hand or the other.
But then again perhaps the reason dates back much earlier than our generation. Could it all have started with the 1939 film ‘Gone with the Wind, when Clark Gable uttered, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
If co-star Vivian Leigh had hauled off and back-handed him across the mouth at that particular moment would the indelible train of thought not have taken a different route?
That’s an overfull mouthful of food for thought, don’t you think?
Frankly, dear reader, at my age I no longer give a damn either.
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105