Yucky girls!

[Dan Shane]

SANTIAGO ASKS:

> 
> Dan Shane:

> So, you were not in love when you were a child? What a 
> sad-sad childhood you had! ;-)

AND I EMPHATICALLY RESPOND:

Oh, no!  I had a delightful childhood -- better than most kids I knew!

I had plenty of interaction with girls while attending Lyndon Elementary
School, but it was purely of the "let's play cowboys and Indians" or "let's
be pirates today" nature.  I had no conception of what love was except what
I saw in movies on television, and that was always the boring part of any
show for me.  It was nice that Cary Grant seemed to like Eva Marie Saint in
NORTH BY NORTHWEST, but all I wanted was for them to get to Mount Rushmore
and start climbing!

Peter Pan had no use for Tiger Lily or Wendy as romantic girlfriends, and I
understood perfectly why not.  Looking back as an adult I naturally feel
differently, but at that age Wendy was only good for telling adventure
stories, and Tiger Lily was just another Indian to capture or be captured
by.  The girls naturally had different ideas, but not Peter! 

I suppose you think Peter had a sad life.  From an adult point of view you
are probably right.  But Peter the perpetual child vehemently feels
otherwise.  To ask him to have romantic notions is to completely obliterate
what makes him Peter Pan.  The nephews are no different (in my mind), and I
had precisely the same view at that early age.  I was having grand
adventures, not mushy interludes that bogged down the action.

I'll turn the tables, Santiago.  I feel sorry for kids who hurry up their
lives and pretend that they are emotionally mature enough to get involved in
the way many adults seem to think is "cute."  These are the young ones who
are in such a rush to be grown up that the girls are having ducklings in
junior high school, and the boys are dropping out to take minimum wage jobs
to support their unwanted quackers.  "Love" (as it is erroneously labeled
for anyone of that age) is robbing kids of their childhood.  There is PLENTY
of time for that later, but the days of carefree adventure are perilously
short.

SANTIAGO CONTINUES:
 
> > Let the kids act like kids in the comics.
> 
> No, that's not so: If you take a look at HDL's attitude in 
> many Barks stories you'll see they behave much more like 
> adults than Donald or Scrooge.
> Remember:
> -Who encourages Donald to solve the giant serpent's mystery 
> instead of madly playing the flute?
> -Who find the way out of the Creta's laberynth by taking care 
> of laying a thread all the input way through?
> -Who recues Donald and Scrooge from the larkies'
> attack?
> -Who got to extinguish the fire in the house while fireman 
> Donald run spreading the fire here and there?
> -Who... (etc)?

AND I DISAGREE:

You are comparing apples and oranges.  All these are instances of the
nephews' MENTAL acuity, not EMOTIONAL maturity.  The figurative heart has
nothing to do with the logical head.

SANTIAGO AGAIN:

> IMHO, HDL do not act like "kids", but as *sensitive* youngmen 
> or adults. They are not shown behaving as
> *actual* kids, but as we wished our children to behave.

AND ME:

The nephews act just as I behaved at their approximate age.  I read
voraciously, loved to travel (either literally in the back seat of my
father's 1953 Nash Ambassador or virtually through the twin lenses of my
beloved View-Master), and dug for "treasure" on my grandparents' farms or in
my back yard.  I did NOT fall in love or indulge in kissing girls.  Where is
the fun in that?

I was certainly sensitive to the feelings of my parents and other grown-ups,
and I wanted them to be happy.  I figured being obedient (as much as
pre-teen child can be) would contribute to that.  It was not until my late
teens that I developed a mildly rebellious spirit that caused my parents to
worry.  As a small boy I was (according to everyone else's report) wonderful
to be around because of the joy I found in life.  I want the nephews always
to exhibit that joy, not get bogged down in the mire of romance.

I understand that others find puppy love "cute."  But that is an adult's
perspective.  I don't want to see the nephews through the eyes of a
grown-up; I want to remember what it was like to be a kid.  Slobby kisses
and sappy love-poems are NOT part of the extremely happy childhood I recall
so fondly.

Dan (walking wistfully down Memory Lane)