When I was a boy, these were things that we learned somehow from direct experience and with elders guidance. Then came widespread, parental fears, and media fantasies of danger now basic survival has atrophied.
A few years ago in Massachusetts a 13-year-old boy was badly burned when he and his friend were starting a brushfire using gasoline! And a click lighter to start it. No idea thethat gasoline explodes, and that it explodes where the vapor is not necessarily where you pour it. I remember telling other people that some adults had been negligent in this boy’s education and now he’s the one that paid the price.
When my daughter was young in grade school, she already knew how to start a fire with kindling and knew that you don’t need any paper. She came home from school one day, saying that this little kid had told her he was going to show her how to start a fire with gasoline. I said let’s learn right now, so we went out to the fire pit. I poured a little gas stood back and threw a match. She saw that it ignited where the vapor had flowed not where I had poured it and that it exploded rather than just burned. I said now you can tell that little boy you already know that and that it’s dumb.
Great examples. Made me think of my childhood. I have Boy Scouts to thank for my initial learning. That program seems to have waned quite a bit in the last few decades.
When I was a boy, these were things that we learned somehow from direct experience and with elders guidance. Then came widespread, parental fears, and media fantasies of danger now basic survival has atrophied.
A few years ago in Massachusetts a 13-year-old boy was badly burned when he and his friend were starting a brushfire using gasoline! And a click lighter to start it. No idea thethat gasoline explodes, and that it explodes where the vapor is not necessarily where you pour it. I remember telling other people that some adults had been negligent in this boy’s education and now he’s the one that paid the price.
When my daughter was young in grade school, she already knew how to start a fire with kindling and knew that you don’t need any paper. She came home from school one day, saying that this little kid had told her he was going to show her how to start a fire with gasoline. I said let’s learn right now, so we went out to the fire pit. I poured a little gas stood back and threw a match. She saw that it ignited where the vapor had flowed not where I had poured it and that it exploded rather than just burned. I said now you can tell that little boy you already know that and that it’s dumb.
Great examples. Made me think of my childhood. I have Boy Scouts to thank for my initial learning. That program seems to have waned quite a bit in the last few decades.