Brains Up The Butt.

[REDSOXWSCHAMP]

I think this is more of a common sense issue. but as we all know common sense isn't so common anymore.

[ozark trout fisher]

Didn't mean to come off as confrontational, got no desire for that. It's just.....as much as anyone, I've had people walk between me and the water I'm fishing, or set up their deer stand within plain view of mine on a parcel of public land that is 20000 acres, most of it lightly hunted. I've had people come out on the small fishing dock I'm using and dump a bag full of fish guts right where I'm casting. Those people have tended to be both young and old, in almost equal measure.

It just comes down to whether you care enough to pay attention to what is going on around you. Sure, upbringing matters, but it's mostly just a state of mind at the end of the day. You have it or you don't.

[MOPanfisher]

I have seen old and young alike do some of the same stuff. Mostly its out of ignorance, they simply don't know, some simply don't care. It is some fantastic entertainment to sit at a boat ramp the first major holiday of the summer and the last. The first holiday weekend you get to see the one who haven't done anything to their boat since last fall, those who have forgotten or never knew how to back a trailer, or have just purchased a boat/jet ski. A cooler of beverages and a little shade can make it into an enjoyable episode of Jerry Springer. I think I could even make money by keeping a handful of cards for the local boat dealer motor repair guy and handing them out to the ones who have left ethanol fuel in all winter, bent a trailer tongue, and maybe a few cards for divorce lawyers.

[JimG]

A cooler of beverages and a little shade can make it into an enjoyable episode of Jerry Springer. I think I could even make money by keeping a handful of cards for the local boat dealer motor repair guy and handing them out to the ones who have left ethanol fuel in all winter, bent a trailer tongue, and maybe a few cards for divorce lawyers.

I have buddy that does just that, minus the handing out of cards.LOL

They have a boat slip within eye shot of the ramp at Stockton. He says most of the major blowups are at the end of the day when couples are buzzed, hungry, sunburned, exhausted and now somehow have to back a trailer up and get a boat on it.

Little more, little more.... NO too far pull up...... now to the right... your other right.

[Al Agnew]

Out here in Montana, the Yellowstone seems to be getting more and more crowded every summer, and not so much with anglers and guides as with casual recreationists. The raft business must really be booming. And the major accesses are just as much a zoo as any COE boat ramp on a popular reservoir. We had just finished a half day float Sunday, and the Carter's Bridge access was so crowded that the shuttle people were parking vehicles across the bridge in a little road along a field, so my buddy had to hike across the bridge to fetch his. Meanwhile, I was holding the raft off the edge of the gravel bar, that was mostly lined with boats either waiting to be loaded or waiting to take off downstream. There was still a part of the bar, however, that was open, with room enough for two vehicles to back down to the water.

Here came a pickup pulling a brand new raft on a trailer that was not designed for it, and the thing was tied down with at least two hundred feet of rope and 25 knots. First they stopped at the top of the bar where the turn-around was, completely blocking the normal course of pulling around to back down. Other vehicles started to pile up behind them. Three young men got out, and I thought they were going to at least untie all those knots and load their gear in the raft. No. They stood atop the bar and studied everything, talked it over, and finally one of them walked down to me and a woman holding a drift boat waiting for her husband to cross the bridge. I was holding the raft well away from that two car opening, and she was holding the driftboat well away on the other side, but the guy told her they were going to back down and she might be in the way. She looked at them incredulously, and said that there was nowhere she could move, since she was already up against a boat on the other side.

He walked back and told the guy driving to go ahead and back it down. That guy looked doubtful but game. Sure enough, it took him a good five minutes of aborted attempts before he finally got the trailer lined up and headed in the right direction, and still at the last moment, he veered straight toward the poor lady. He pulled back up, tried one more time, and hit the two car opening dead center, getting out looking very proud of himself.

Now the knot untying marathon began. It took them at least fifteen minutes to get all the knots loose. Another ten minutes was taken up unloading the gear, and finally they pulled the truck out of the way. It was at that point that the guy who had warned us they were backing in finally noticed the line of six or so vehicles waiting, and he told the guy at the head of the line, "Oh, sorry, we didn't realize you were waiting to back in."

[rps]

Al, as I hive told you before, you write well. I am sorry but, McManus needed to write about this.

[Quillback]

Good stuff.

[Mitch f]

Scott, and others who were raised traditionally, let me explain what it is like to teach 13 and 14 year old kids in public school.

One of the most common phrases you hear: "Don't Judge Me." Wait a minute child, I am the teacher. It is my job to judge your actions and your work and help you learn to do better.

Another very common phrase: "YOLO!" (You only live once) Used to justify any action, no matter how stupid. Child, Darwin had something to say about Yolo.

Faced with verbal consequences to an action, you hear, "You're bullying me." [Although they would probably spell it "U R bullying me."]

My favorite: "Can I call my mother?" Used to fix any mistake or oversight such as forgotten school work or permission slips. Also used when confronted with the consequences of an action. In most cases the child is sincere as they know mother will drop everything and come to school.

Someone raises the children to know and think this way, so your traditional values upbringing is a relic of a different time and place. At some point the pendulum will swing back to make your values more mainstream, but not for a while yet. Of course that means there will a future Timothy Leary and Abby Hoffman out there to fight that repression. God I love teaching history.

You started me thinking again of something that happened to me 2 weeks ago....

I was taking a trip to Taneycomo with my buddy and fellow OAF member (who rarely posts)to try to catch some bigger bass. I proposed this trip to him about 4 months ago and we had just started driving down from STL. We had gotten down just past Lebanon and he received a phone call from his wife. I could tell by the tone of the conversation, it was not going to be good. His wife informed him that his father had just died of a heart attack. We turned around at the next exit and started back home. Having just lost my father 1 1/2 years ago, we were kind of in the same situation. We both agreed that parents of the world war 2 gen were great parents but were definitely different than the parents of today. We both agreed that our parents without a doubt taught us right from wrong very well. We also both agreed that aside from the right and wrong teaching, we never received much guidance. I remember my father and mother sitting me down when I was a senior in high school (1979), and telling me if I wanted to go to college, they would pay for it. But the conversation pretty much stopped there. Neither of them went to college and had no idea how to even direct me to something other than a skilled trade. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not faulting them...it's all they knew. As boys, my brother and I were pretty much on our own. But my buddy and I agreed that this might indeed be the greatest way of teaching a child: Let them experience things on their own. We made mistakes and learned from them and survived to tell the tale. I think this might be one of the biggest things missing in todays children. I'm trying so hard to raise my 2 young girls so they don't think they are the center of the universe, but boy it can sometimes be extremely difficult. I'm also trying to give them a wee bit more guidance than my parents gave me. Gosh, parenting is tough!

[Old plug]

I am only going to say this. when a kids reach there teens you as a parent will encounter what is almost a formidable adversary. It is called the Peer Group. It will be your enemy till they are into there 20's.

[Tim Smith]

And at the campsite too....

My son is walking the Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango, a 485 mile trek through the wilderness during which he needs resupply. I'm not in a position to walk that kind of distance over that much time, but it has been my pleasure to resupply him on the weekends. This weekend we met him at a USFS campsite and dropped off food. We also made him campfire grilled steak and veggies and garlic bread and a bunch of other fresh stuff to relieve him of the boredom of trail food. It was an important time to put down some calories, rest, and touch base. This week he'll walk 140 miles with over 50 pounds on his back.

So there it is, 10:00 PM, the official USFS quiet time when things are supposed to wind down. Everyone is stuffed to the gills with great food and good conversation, and we head for the tents to sleep. Or at least we thought we were heading to the tents to sleep. The eight or so people in the campsite next to us had very different ideas.

Here came the whiskey. And the beer. And the pot. And worst of all, the guitar. By 2:30 AM we had heard every misbegotten song ever written for a beginner's guitar manual. Johnny Cash, Hank Jr., Tom Petty, John Denver, Jim Croce all got mangled in their turn. By the end of the night there were no actual syllables left in these songs, so it's hard to know what other artists might have put through the grinder. They did seem to include quite a bit of "F..!!" and "SH..!! shouted at the top of the lungs. Maybe it was the Sex Pistols.

I've broken up plenty of parties that got out of hand, but I didn't want to deal with the fallout from that in front of my kids. The best I could do was sit there and ride it out.There was a huge group of Missouri Mennonites camping around us as well, and I can't imagine how they felt. I know my son could have used that sleep. The best I could do for my 10 year old daughter was to explain that some people are idiots and they don't care about anyone but themselves and stay away from people like that.

I was grateful to the camp host for giving us that night free, but was also pretty incredulous that he claimed not to have heard the noise. He should have shut them down from the get-go.

The next night, the Sex Pistols had packed up and pulled out. The Mennonites had a church service and a supper that also lasted past 10:00, but was quiet and respectful with three times the number of people involved. Of the two groups there that weekend, they seemed to have had the better time.

Colorado is full of National Forest where it is perfectly fine to settle down at a dispersed site far away from everyone else and party your brains out. A campsite completely full of other campers is not one of those. I've seen some scenes like this one in Missouri too. I wish there were better ways to deal with them...

....beginning with parents who raise their kids to care about the people around them.