Sunday, January 6, 2013

Our Children, Our Poor, Poor children

Last night I accompanied Cherry Pie, her sister Rock Star and her husband Gasman to the bowling alley. Cherry's Dad and I were observers only. I love to bowl but with my junk knees it's not really the thing for me to do any more. So, in observer capacity I noticed one very striking item. There were a lot of kids there from the age of, say, 13 to 20. And most of them were heavy, fat or obese. And none of them, fat or skinny, had any muscle tone or strength. Ninety five percent of them could not one hand a bowling ball. I saw them doing  the two hand from between the legs trick, the two hands from the hip fling, and finally one tall, fat, uncoordinated, weakling did a modified two handed shot put of the ball. Yes, there were a few that used one hand but, walked up to the foul line, dropped the ball to full arm extension and gave a weak swing, letting the ball arc out about 2 feet before crashing to the floor. The other 5 percent of the kids in attendance were in good shape and more interested in preening, dancing and yes, doing some bowling.
   Is this what we are faced with? 95 percent of our youth, fat and obese with no muscular development? How can a parent let a child grow up in this condition? I was shocked to say the least. My son grew up strong and fit. His friends, for the most part, were strong and fit. Even his fat friends were strong. Is there no more PE in school now? Do boys have no interest in weight lifting, running, physical sports or fitness anymore? I know it's from a different time and a different community, but when I was in that age range I was a power house, a bull, a muscle packed dynamo. At 185 pounds I could dead lift over 500 pounds. I could out run the backs  on the football team, I could jump very high, I could climb a rope to the gym ceiling, I could run for hours at a time. My brother was a long distance runner and would ride a bicycle for over 20 miles at a time. My freaking brother in law rode a skate board to school one day. It was over 8 miles to school on a road with a lot of hills! What the fuck has happened to our children?

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