It's History Now

About a month ago I watched a television show on the network Animal Planet with my teenage daughter.  She is generally an above average student, at least when she is interested.  She loves anything related to animals, especially dogs and cats.  The show we watched was a survival type show.  The subject of the episode was a young man who was exploring the Amazon with his dog.  His dog's name was Livingstone.  I made the comment to my wife that most kids today wouldn't know why an explorer would name his dog "Livingstone," as in, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."  I asked my daughter if she knew the story of Dr. Livingstone and Sir Stanley in Africa.  She had never heard of either.  That made me start to wonder about her knowledge of explorers in general.

I asked if she knew who Daniel Boone was.  No.  John Fremont?  No.  Lewis and Clarke?  Heard the names, but not sure, although I think she really does know their story if really pressed.  Sir Edmund Hillary?  Nope.  Admiral Peary?  Blank look.  I decided to explore her knowledge a little closer to present-day.  Know what John Glenn did?  Not a clue.  How about Neill Armstrong?  Finally the light came on!  "Yeah, I know him!  He sells those yellow bracelets!  He did something with bikes too, didn't he?"  Close.  That's Lance Armstrong.  He beat cancer and won the Tour de France bike race four straight times.  And started a foundation to raise money for cancer research with yellow (color of Tour d' France winner's jersey) bracelets.  Admirable, and one of the best athletes of my lifetime, but  I don't think his accomplishments quite reach the level of those of the first man to walk on the moon.

In school, I always enjoyed history, but didn't necessarily think it was one of the more important subjects taught.  What does a kid get out of history?  Nothing but a bunch of dates and names to memorize, right?  Now, I realize it is one of the more important subjects in school.  Not only do we need to know where we've been and where we came from, but we also need to know what we are capable of.  Both good and bad.  I've written before about how our view of history shapes our view of ourselves, and how changing history changes our present view.  Now, at least here in Colorado, history is not taught at all.  The upside to this discovery has been that it has renewed my interest in history.  The majority of the books on my Kindle are biographies, or historical novels.  My next posts will be history related, maybe with some views on why the subject is important, or why it is being changed.  Of course, as my wife will tell you, all, or at least the majority of the subjects will be from Texas or the American west.


By the way, in the Animal Planet show we watched, the explorer killed and ate his dog, Livingstone.  Made him sick.  Served him right.

Kindergarten Socialists

Remember the first day of school when you were a kid.  It was exciting.  Not only did you get to see all your friends after the summer, and meet the new kids in town, you got to go shopping for new school clothes and supplies.

We always made a trip to Fletcher's in Gruver for new clothes and shoes.  Fletcher's had a window display with a water faucet hanging with fishing line from the ceiling.  Water flowed from the faucet into a bucket on the floor.  We never could figure out how they did that.  I also remember how embarrassed mom and Judy were when one of the Lindsey boys came running to his mom crying, holding a mannequin arm.

Being Texans, we got Levis or Wranglers.  My favorite shoes were Trax.  They made you run faster and jump higher.  Talk about false advertising!  I remember picking them out of a big bin.  And digging for the match when the one shoe in my size was not still attached to its mate.  Also finding someone's old shoes in the pile.  I just thought they wore the new ones and didn't need the old pair anymore.  Later as a shoe store manager, I hated finding old worn shoes in our bins or in a box.  It meant someone had stolen from us.

For a boy anyway, clothes shopping was torture.  But we loved going to Spearman to the TG&Y to buy school supplies.  Looking back, I know we were on a tight budget, but it always seemed like we got what we wanted.  In my case, it was pencils with Dallas Cowboy logos on them, and most importantly, a pencil sharpener inside a plastic Cowboys football helmet.  

Most kids today don't get those choices.  Even many public schools today are requiring school uniforms.  Parents accept the idea because it takes the pressure off.  Don't have to give in to the peer pressure and buy high dollar brand names. Everyone wears the same styles and colors.  No one has to feel bad because they don't have the latest fad.


School supplies aren't yours anymore.  They all go to the teacher to be passed out to the entire class.  Since mom knows you won't necessarily get what you take to class, she buys the boring yellow pencils and square pink erasers and red, green, yellow, and blue notebooks.  No more Dallas Cowboys or Smurfs or Spongebobs today.  Everyone has the same blaaah stuff.

Socialism starts early.  Gets us accustomed to giving up choices.