Thursday, October 30, 2008

Times Have Changed


Last night, I got one of these headaches that causes my vision to become very spotty and distorted. In fact, I was in a chat room with Papa, Craig, and a bunch of other dish collectors when it hit. I could barely read my screen and had to log off early.
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I used to get these all the time when I was a teenager. The pain was so bad that I would end up vomiting. My parents were always having to leave work to pick me up at school.
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Even though these headaches have never gone away completely, their frequency has has been greatly reduced. Now, I only get them once every few years or so.
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My last such episode occurred more than four years ago. I was driving the car when my vision started going blurry. I managed to pull into a McDonald's parking lot, and call Q to come pick me up.

Last night's headache occurred in the safety of home. I just took some Tylenol PM and went to bed.

While I laid there, I began thinking about the headaches I used to get as a teenager. My mom took me to the doctor and I was given medication, which I kept with me at all times.

That's right! I walked around high school with a bottle of prescription pain meds in my purse.

That move wouldn't fly today. I must have been really good about being discreet because I didn't get in trouble for it.

In fact, we got away with a lot of crap when we were kids...much of which would be grounds for expulsion today:

--In the late 80s, Corona Beer t-shirts were all the rage. Everybody had one, and we wore them to school.

--Whenever birthdays were celebrated, we were allowed to bring in homemade cupcakes to share with the class. Now, all treats have to be store-bought.

--Q grew up in rural Montana. He talks about how kids would drive to school in trucks equipped with gun racks. Some even wore utility knives on their belts.

--We called it like we saw it. Winter Break was known as Christmas Vacation.

--Instead of "fall festival", we got to have real, honest-to-goodness Halloween parties. We even got to wear our costumes to school.

--Nobody was ever censured for eating a peanut butter sandwich in the cafeteria.

--We didn't need a food handler's license to hold a bake sale.
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--Pet birds, fish, snakes, frogs, and hamsters were commonly brought in for show-and-tell.
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--We played tag or tackle football on the playground
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--We also jumped off the swings. (Lucas tells me this is a HUGE no-no)

2 comments:

ChristopherM said...

What's with the no baked goods rule? I can tell you that when I walk into school with plastic containers indicating I have been baking, I get swarmed! The Black Law Students Association was having a bake sale one day, and I was standing by talking to one of my friends who was working the table. One of the other members called out trying to get a classmate to buy something, and his response was, "Did McDavid make it? No? No thanks then."

Ms. Val said...

Christopher, the no baked goods rule has to do with public health/safety. The schools want to make certain that any food distributed to students has been prepared in a kitchen over which the health department has jurisdiction...such as a grocery store bakery or a donut shop.

Everyone's afraid of possible litigation. If Junior gets food poisoning from a cupcake prepared in an unsanitized pan, Big Mama's gonna sue the school district!

I so need to try your baked goods sometime.