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color="#0000CC" size="7" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The View from the Meadow</font></em><font color="#FFFFFF" size="4"><b><a href="http://viewfromthemeadow.com/rovecialeak.html "><br> </a></b></font><font color="#FF0000" size="5" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><strong><em>Observations of the Passing Scene</em></strong></font><font color="#FFFFFF" size="4"><b><a href="http://viewfromthemeadow.com/rovecialeak.html "><br> </a></b></font><font color="#000000" size="4" face="Poster Bodoni"><strong>Political and Social Commentary by Dave Satre</strong></font></p> <center> <p align="left"><IMG WIDTH=720 HEIGHT=1 SRC="colorbarani.gif"></p> </center></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top" bordercolor="#FFFFFF" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <table width="749" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <p align="center"><font color="#FF0000" size="5"><strong>It Takes A Village</strong></font></p> <p>When I hear the term It Takes a Village I am reminded of my days as a youngster growing up in a tiny town in the southwest corner of Minnesota. Times were different then. It was a good place to grow up. A great place to raise kids. </p> <p>Life is simpler when you live in a town that is basically a square mile out on the grid of the great prairie, spilling over only slightly on the edges. The 2,000 residents shared pretty much the same values in those days. Although there were seven churches representing diverse denominations of Christianity, the community accepted and practiced a set of shared ideals that were known to everyone and they were ingrained in the children from birth. We were raised to be nice to people, to be polite and helpful. Most importantly, we were taught to be responsible for ourselves from a very early age. </p> <p>Parents didn’t have today’s fears to deal with and children were allowed the freedom to wander and discover life along the way. The community helped keep watch on the little kids. A toddler could not wander off in the summer and get a block from home before some neighbor would look after him and let the mother know. </p> <p>And what could happen to little children, anyway? There were no serial rapists or child molesters --- about the worst that could happen to a pre-schooler would be to wander off into the corn fields at the edge of town. If they did get lost, it wouldn’t take long to find them. </p> <p>As children got older they were expected to entertain themselves. They were encouraged to grow up on their own, out of sight of their parents. To wander free exploring life, socializing and making up their own games with other children. </p> <p>It was not unusual for grade school kids to leave the house after breakfast in the summer and spend most of the day playing with other kids. They might make it home for lunch, but chances were good that they would be fed at a neighbor’s house if they didn’t. And, if we ended up hungry it was our own fault. There was no need for concern. Parents wouldn’t worry unless a child wasn’t home by dark or in time for dinner.</p> <p>Of course, these were the days before entrance exams were required for preschool and kindergarten. It was long before child psychiatrists went maniacal and confused the world with warnings about what could go wrong with children. This was long before the discovery of A.D.D. (Affection Deficit Disorder) and the pharmaceutical treatments now available for such problems.</p> <p>Parents did not have to watch children carefully --- the entire village kept an eye on them. If a child was lost or ran into some scrapes and bruises in the course of the day a neighbor or another parent would take care of any patching up that was necessary and send them on their way. The parents enforced a set of community mores and if a child breached these ethical codes in any way they were set straight, often by total strangers who felt perfectly free to tell them, “We don’t do things like that around here.” And we didn’t. If we did, Mom heard about it before we got home and there would be hell to pay. Better to just not screw up. </p> <p>Instead, we were taught to take responsibility for ourselves at a very young age. We were told that if a problem arrived during school, or on the bus, or anywhere else for that matter, it was our fault. Democracy be damned, we were guilty unless proven innocent and the trial usually didn’t get that far. </p> <p>Any conflict with a teacher was automatically settled in their favor. A neighbor that complained about your behavior was always right. If you missed the school bus and you lived a couple of miles out of town --- you walked to school. And if you arrived late it was your fault. </p> <p>Our superintendent rarely closed the schools because of bad weather, even if we had to walk through huge snow drifts before the plows could clear the city streets. We were expected to be at school and be on time. If we weren’t it was our fault. </p> <p><br> If a high school kid was messing around downtown at night or getting too loud and boisterous in a city park, his parents knew about it before he got home that night. There was no room for outrageous behavior --- it was our fault. </p> <p>It’s not that we weren’t typically mischievous youngsters, we were full of spunk, but we were generally mannerly and almost never malicious. We did things that we weren’t supposed to do sometimes, but it never compared with any of the reports of today’s teenagers in larger towns and cities. And frankly, there just wasn’t that much trouble to get into. </p> <p>We would rather do something more positive, like choose up sides and play games. Boys would meet at the parks or playgrounds and start pick-up games of softball or touch football. We didn’t wait to sign-up for the official Little League schedules, but actually played games for the fun of it, without expensive equipment, uniforms and spectators. Kids were allowed to learn these games away from the limelight, beyond the critical eye of adults. We were able to discover whether we had any abilities in a sport without the fear of failure. Striking out at a sandlot softball game was no great shame --- we didn’t have maniacal soccer mom’s and dads watching from the bleachers and screaming at us to excel. </p> <p>Most junior and senior high school students would participate in school activities before and after school. In a small school with graduating classes of 65 or fewer students everybody had to pitch in. I was in the high school band when I was in fifth grade. I played football and participated in gymnastics after school in junior and senior high school. The amazing thing to me, was that these groups were all of pretty high quality. </p> <p>Our marching band was the best in the area, although the competition from our local rivalries was intense. We actually won the first place in the Aquatennial parade in Minneapolis, which was reportedly the biggest parade competition in the Midwest at that time. That means that not only did we win the marching band competition, we were considered the best entry in the whole damned parade…….</p> <p>Our gymnastics team was the best in Minnesota, outside of two teams from big schools in the Twin Cities. We won our regional tournament every year and some of the guys on the team were near legendary in the sport. </p> <p>Our junior high football team went undefeated against neighboring towns two years in a row. Our high school team was undefeated in 1955. We also beat the 11th-ranked team in the state – Shattuck Military Academy. Their team was undefeated and they must have averaged 200 pounds among the players. I think our biggest player weighed about 175 pounds. We beat them 25 to nothing. </p> <p>The lesson learned was, as our coaches always said, it’s all in the way you play the game. We played hard, but we played clean. We learned that the insurmountable is achievable if you work together through teamwork. </p> <p>Teamwork was one of the greatest lessons learned growing up in that little town. It certainly exhibited its value in sports, and in the band, but it spread throughout the community. We learned the value of working together, how to set goals and achieve them. </p> <p>Best of all, our teachers, parents and coaches were able to demonstrate these values through our successes. Our band director showed us that we could play music that seemed way above our heads. The coaches molded us into outstanding teams that showed us that we were capable of excelling if we worked together. </p> <p>Things were simpler when I was growing up, but more difficult in many other ways. We lacked all of the technologies taken for granted today. We didn’t have television, we were lucky to have a few radio stations to entertain us. Recordings were invented during my early years and we had telephones, but we certainly didn’t have computers or the Internet. Our generation invented them in later years. </p> <p>We were lucky to be able to see weekly western movie matinees at the local Grand Theatre, for which we paid nine cents. The extra penny in the dime given to us by our parents was enough to buy a few pieces of candy or gum in the local confectionary store. Times were definitely different economically. Prices were less than a 10th of the prices of today. Of course, a pack of gum that cost a nickel, or a Coke for the same price, now goes for over a buck. </p> <p>The five dollars a week I earned by hauling newspapers in a big sack, literally over snow drifts in wind-blown fields, was plenty of spending money for a teenage boy. I actually earned more spending money during high school by trapping mink and muskrat in the winter. My buddy and I got up early every morning to check the traps before making it back to school in time for band practice. We made a tidy sum murdering those poor innocent animals. I couldn’t do that today. But, in my youth hunting, fishing and trapping was a way of life. It put food on the table and, in our case, money in our pockets. </p> <p>The values I learned growing up in a little town on the prairie are deeply instilled and still with me today. I love to work with others. I like to be a part of a group. I play trumpet and I may not be the greatest solo player in the local jazz scene, but I’m a damned good section player and I play in some very good big bands, with players who know what it means to work hard at something --- and to grow personally through the effort.</p> <p>We learned the importance of a sense of community, of patriotism and participation in activities that make a community grow. We learned that success is achieved through a combination of a good attitude, useful activities and a proper ambition to be the best person we can be. </p> <p>If we, as parents, have failed the next generations by falling for the worrisome warnings of the psychologists and smothering our children with too much protection, spoiling them rotten by giving them everything we never had, and turning them into an ungrateful community of complainers who blame others for their actions and practice a predilection toward lawsuits, we can’t ignore the results. After all --- it’s our fault.<br> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <p>David Satre<br> Sep 1st, 2005<br> 1,809 Words<br> All Rights Reserved<br> It Takes a Village </p></td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top" bgcolor="#0000FF"> <td colspan="2"> <div align="center"><font color="#FFFFFF" size="5" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><b>Throw the Bums Out! <a href="http://vaip.us"><font color="#FF0000">Vote Against Incumbent Politicians</font></a></b></font></div></td> </tr> </table> <body> <div align="justify"></div> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><img src="http:/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=netgate_counters<meadow>.dat" align=absmiddle> </p> <map name="Map"> <area shape="rect" coords="1,0,233,155" href="#meadow1.jpeg" target="#meadow1small.jpeg"> </map> </body> </html>