Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ill Advised

Mike, Donovan and I had a rather ill advised evening tonight. We went out to Waterfront as I had some last minute shopping to do for a baby shower I will be attending tomorrow. This is a family member babyshower and I am going to support another mother and to pull some daughter in law duty. I'm sure it will be lovely but its no one I really know.

ANYhow, we thought we'd stop at Wendy's for dinner as we were in a hurry and one thing Donny will always eat is french fries. First, you can't read books like Radical Homemaking and Lunch Lessons and expect to really enjoy Wendy's. Second, we got there right as this gaggle of guys in their 20s got there. I am so spoiled in that I'm surrounded by people similar to me that seeing these guys in action came as sort of a shock. It was almost like being surrounded by wolves--you just keep quiet and hope they arent hungry. I think they were friends but they were being really mean to one another. One of the guys started to get pissed off and it was like blood in the water--they all started picking on him and pushing his buttons in this we're-just-playin' kind of way.

Watching them made me wonder if, despite our best efforts, Donovan might grow up to be an asshole. It also made me wonder if raising him on Silver Pennies and Charles Ives is the equivalent of releasing a 3 legged gazelle back onto the Serengeti. To continue with a metaphor.

But now I need to ask: have you ever seen Woodstock? The part where Country Joe and the Fish do the No More Rain! chant? Well, when the guys left, Donny started chanting, a la Country Joe, "No More Dudes! No More Dudes!" Not sure where that came from as Mike and I were both keeping our mouths shut while the Dudes were there.

I could'nt find the No More Rain chant on YouTube but here's some Country Joe from the same performance: Rock n' Soul, baby...

2 comments:

sheryl said...

OMG! no more dudes! no more dudes!

that little man will be just fine. he'll use his wit to defeat the enemy.

Anonymous said...

he's going to be ok. there's a new generation of dudes, who are going to be different kinds of dudes.

just the other day, one of my guy friends friendly-punched another guy friend (in front of our son) and the punched guy said, "OW, THAT HURT! I AM NOT THAT KIND OF MAN!" and i thought, oh yeah, a different kind of man. that's the whole point.

i mean, kids are unpredictable forces of nature and they certainly have their own personalities and will become their own obstinate people, but you have a lot to say about it! if our kids' biggest rebellions are fascination with ronald reagan, not getting any tattoos, and an interest in eating cereal for every meal (my burden - i know yours is french fries), then that's fantastic.