these days if you did any of this some young girl with a bone thru her nose will lecture you and demand you become who she wants you to be. i'm older than mr peters who posted this and remember even more, like doctors smoking as you sat in their office speaking about what brought you there and if there were any in the waiting room it might be one or two, usually. now we're on the road to hell paved with librul intentions;

Before the ’90s, men drove cars and kids rode bicycles – without helmets. Now men wear helmets to ride a bicycle and kids aren’t allowed to ride in a car unless they are strapped into a “safety” seat.

I am thankful I was born just in the nick of time to avoid growing up in what this country has become. Gen X was the last generation to experience a degree of personal freedom unimaginable today.

Imagine, if you can, being a high school kid and going outside for a smoke – and not being tackled by a School Resource Officer (i.e., a cop). There did not used to be cops in high schools unless they had to be called – and that literally never happened during my high school years, back in the ’80s. There were no metal detectors and the doors weren’t locked, either. You could just walk in – or out – without having to “check in.” No one wore ID tags. It was a high school. Not a prison. Not yet. Not then.

There was a smoking arcade – a place outside where the kids who wanted a smoke could go to have a smoke. Unimaginable today. The adults aren’t allowed to smoke. And it is not about smoking. It is about being free to do so, if you wanted to. This is the important distinction.

That freedom is a distant memory............more........