Three Things I Never Taught My Sons

It’s funny how time has changed things so much. When I was a kid, we were taught things by our parents. We played outside a lot and didn’t have much time left over for idleness. I had a little nostalgic pang this morning and realized there are a lot of things I’ve never taught my sons. Here are three.

How to Whittle
When I was a kid, we all had pocket knives. If a kid has a pocket knife now and brings it to school, the Department of Homeland Security gets called and the kid is tossed from school permanently for bringing a “weapon” to school. My dad taught me how to whittle. Every kid where he grew up in Western Pennsylvania (coal and steel country) knew how to whittle. I got my first knife when I was five. My guys have never gotten a knife.

[Photo credit: Mark Schoneveld]

How to Fish
When I was 8 years old or so, my dad took me to Lake Michigan at about 5 in the morning. We had two fishing poles and some worms we’d dug up right after it got dark the night before. We’d thrown them in a Styrofoam cup along with some dirt from where we dug them up. That first morning he taught me how to bait the hook with half an earthworm (don’t ask). Then we caught yellow perch. And lots of them. That was his fishing lesson for me. Then he said, “You can walk to the Lake yourself from now on.” My friends and I used to catch a lot of perch when we were 8, 9 and 10 years old. Can you imagine letting your kid go out while it’s still dark to sit on a pier and catch fish with old men?

[Photo credit: Rickydavid]

How to Make a Slingshot
We played a lot of “War” when I was a kid. We lived near a park that had a huge ravine, and we used the side of that steep hill as our little slice of Vietnam. (The war was in full gear when I was at that impressionable age where we ordered G.I. Joe dog tags from comic books and were willing to wait 6 weeks for shipping and delivery. Really , we had no choice.) We built “bottle cap guns” out of broom handles, rubber bands, and clothes pins; we made pungee sticks (don’t ask); and we each had our very best, homemade slingshot. We’d search high and low for the strongest tree branch that had a great Y in it. We’d cut up old pieces of car inner tube tires (yeah, they used to have those) and use the tongues of old sneakers for the pocket. Mostly we used rocks and shot them at each other. One kid’s dad had a box of ball bearings. Things got serious in our “War” games after that (don’t ask).

[Photo credit: Speakeasy]

Posted on August 23, 2008
Filed Under Frank's World | Comments

Comments

  • It's a shame, isn't it , that life is not that easy anymore. You can't even let your kids out to play unsupervised. Now parents make play dates.Mine used to go out early in the morning and come back for lunch and dinner. They played around the neighbohood all day, with all the other kids.
  • You're right. We used to get booted out of the house in the morning, told to come back for lunch (which we ate outside), and then be home in time for dinner. Nowadays, it's all protection. My 14-year-old just told Sheryl that they can't have scissors at school anymore. Honest to goodness. What a change...but I've changed too...it's video games now, not dirt clod fights in the ravine.
  • Well, my dad "taught" me how to fish ... actually he took me down to League Island Park in South Philly with a cheap plastic fishing rod, and after I hooked a couple of tin cans and an old boot, we called it a day.

    My dad did teach me how to play pinball! He would take me to the corner bar with him and order me vanilla cokes and give me dimes to play the pinball machine, he was damn good at it, and taught me well . The thing was, I had to tell my mom that we had actually gone to the library. So I guess he taught me how to "embellish" the truth.
  • Pax...I love how your dad taught you to play pinball...something about father/son bonding when there's a little secret involved.

    That cracked me up about the fishing. We caught fish, but years later they revealed that the entire lake was polluted with PCBs, and you could get cancer from eating the fish. Go figure.
  • i hate how kids are so coddled these days. it's not even necessarily by the parents now. the world's become too sterile and the souls of the adults of tomorrow will be broken too easily once they enter the real world.
  • Albert, it is amazing how much coddling goes on. We worry for our kids, but we're not doing them any favors "protecting" them from every possible negative thing.
  • Tami
    Frank - It's never too late to teach your kids things. Three things Matt will need to know by this time next year (and I speak from experience)...1) How to do his own laundry..correctly. 2) How to check the air, put in air and change a tire...correctly. 3) How to assemble a piece of furniture that comes in a box, especially one that says "no tools required"....correctly. Life lessons for the college freshman!
  • Tami, those are three valuable life lessons, that's for sure. I may have to count on Sheryl for #1, but I will march him out there for #2 (I've had my share of tires that have blown out...had one this year). As far as #3 goes, that's great advice. Guys don't read instructions...but I'd say it has to start there. Thanks for the ideas...I'm going with these.
  • Thanks for the great post and the wave of nostalgia. I feel fortunate for having had the freedom to ride my bike anywhere, for swinging on vines and ice-skating in the woods, for childhood camping trips with my Scout troop, for fishing with my grandfather when I was a kid and target shooting with him when I was a teen. It is indeed a different world- or does every generation say this when they reach our age?
    And by the way, I have no doubt you're one of the great dads, despite the absence of whittling lessons.
  • Ms. Information, I'm hit by these waves from time to time. Perhaps it's a sign of the age. It is funny to wonder if that's what each generation goes through. We did a lot more outdoors things when I was a kid, and I suppose my dad, who was born in 1924, probably had an outdoorsy existence that far exceeded mine.

    We're trying to do the right thing...somedays I think we're doing right. Thanks for the vote of confidence.
  • Wow. My dad taught me how to play baseball. I was a great batter before puberty. I am not sure what happened. He also taught me to play the guitar some.
  • Good deal...I'll have to do a post on what I've taught them...cool what your dad did. We're all the composite of our life experiences...and it's funny how many were taught to us when we think about it. Guitar and baseball...fun.
  • Steve
    Sometimes I too feel that I haven't been the best at passing along some of those things that my father taught me to my son...however, we both have been fortunate to have others help...Cub Scouts (whittling), Howard (chopping down trees...imagine that!), Bob (hunting) just to name a few.

    It seems that there are so many more pressures on everyones time, work, school/homework, sports and other activities (not to mention the transportation time there!) that there is prescious little left to teach let along learn some of things that used to be our leisure...maybe I need to send him to Tinkering School :http://www.tinkeringschool.com/blog/2005/about/
  • You just realized these things when you get older and yeah sometimes you regret it. Hoping you have learned it when you were younger.
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