Modern day problems sometimes seem almost insurmountable when I take a look back and compare them to earlier times. In school I was always less than an entusiastic student. Generally I was thinking about what we were going to have for lunch and if my mom was going to let me go to the river instead of starting homework as soon as I came home. My motivation was lacking but there was always encouragement from teachers in some form or fashion.
At St. Joseph Catholic School the nuns who were the teaches wouldn't let me out the door if I hadn't finished my work or if they felt I didn't fully understand the lesson. If a parent was outside waiting to pick up a student who was detained after class they had to come in and get the kid and the teacher's version of why the detention was needed. That meant there would be more to come when arriving back home. Not something one would be looking forward to in most cases.
If I received a rap on the knuckles or had a tug on my ear during class it wasn't something I would go home and complain about. As much as it might have hurt I knew what was waiting at home would be far worse and longer lasting. Zero tolerance was the name of the game at home.
When it comes to math I have always been pretty good doing numbers in my head. It came in handy throughout my professional life and beyond. It always amused me when a younger person would ask me how I figured something out in my head. I was left thinking how they had not figured out something so simple in their head. It leaves me sad now as I watch young people struggle to do simple math even with the help of their phone calculator. It has been a running joke for some time on social media but I no longer find it to be funny.
Some of us oldtimers spend way too many hours discussing how things have changed over the last couple generations. I often think how it is unfair that we had things like the Bantex Theater and even a drive-in movie along with a free and open river to enjoy. I will have to admit I don't know if things like that would even interest kids today with the cell phone invention. What's the appropriate age to receive your first phone now? Three or four? Don't laugh. All you need to do is just look around.
Through my young Growing Up In Bandera years I never even wanted to talk on a phone. Well, not until later when I became interested in girls. I truly don't know how I could have fit in my busy schedule of fishing, swimming, playing ball and riding the dusty trails on my bike in this paradise called Bandera.
