麻豆传媒

This may sound like the ramblings of 鈥極ld Man Ruttle鈥�, but we had to make our own fun when we were kids.

See, I grew up as part of the last generation before cell phones really exploded and eventually became the norm for basically every kid alive, and before every person started living their lives with their heads tilted semi-permanently downward.

When I was growing up, every video game didn鈥檛 require hours of work before you could actually sit down to play and require a super-fast Internet connection to download and install all your files and updates.聽 I鈥檓 the Nintendo generation, baby; insert, press and play within a timespan of ten seconds.

Well, unless your system was acting up, in which case you employed that tried-and-true technique of 鈥渂lowing on the game or inside the Nintendo鈥� to clear things up.

You see where I鈥檓 going with this.聽 In some ways, there are similarities and shared interests, but at the same time, the generational gap couldn鈥檛 be further apart.聽 So since I grew up in the time before iPhones, iPads and iDon鈥檛WantToParticipateInActualHumanConversationAnymore products, we had to make our own fun whenever we were bored on any given Friday or Saturday night.

Some examples of the kind of 鈥榮mall town brand of fun鈥� that my friends and I got up to in our youth include the following:

The time Kyle, Jon and I ended up playing an odd game of 鈥榟ide and seek鈥� with some girl classmates of ours, only this was with vehicles.聽 We were in Grade 11 and enjoying the kind of rambunctious, not-all-that-mature freedom that came with getting our respective driver鈥檚 licenses.聽 We went to the movie in Outlook that night and wound up driving around listening to tunes in Kyle鈥檚 parents鈥� minivan before we came across the girls in another minivan.聽 (The family minivan was the badass choice of vehicle in our day)聽 They were doing the same thing as us, only following a different route and taking weird detours all around Outlook.聽 So what did we do, as immature teenage boys whose hormones were going nuts?聽 We followed them.聽 Or rather, we attempted to.聽 Just as we thought we had them going down *one* street, that van of Brittany鈥檚 would pop up on *this* one.聽 At some point, this was gonna take a turn for the possible worse, and it happened when Kyle was barreling down Tufts Crescent and forgot that he had his high-beams on.聽 As we were shooting around one corner, Brittany鈥檚 van came around at the same time, and to this day I remember the look of 鈥淗OLY $#&!鈥� on her face as Kyle veered around to avoid hitting them.聽 I can remember Brittany鈥檚 face clearly because, like I said, Kyle forgot that he had his high-beam headlights on.

Another time, the guys and I were celebrating Canada Day with our very own fireworks display.聽 I can already hear you saying, 鈥極h, I don鈥檛 like where this is headed鈥︹�� and I can confirm that you鈥檙e at least on the right track.聽 Fortunately for us, we left that particular July 1 with all ten fingers and toes.聽 We were behind the ball diamonds at the Rec Plex late at night and cracked open our supply of gas station pyrotechnics, marveling at all the different kinds and what they were capable of.聽 We lit off a few and all was going well.聽 We lit off a few more and it was turning out to be a pretty cool Canada Day 鈥渁fterparty鈥�.聽 We lit off another one鈥︹��and it proceeded to stay on the ground and sizzle before rolling its unfired self underneath Kyle鈥檚 car, which confirmed that we had parked way too close.

鈥淗IT THE FREAKING DECK!!!鈥� I shrieked as we ducked for cover, only I certainly didn鈥檛 say 鈥榝reaking鈥� at the time.聽 There was indeed an 鈥榝鈥� and a word that ends in 鈥榢ing鈥�, but the vowels need to be replaced in this instance.

Luckily, Kyle鈥檚 car did not blow up like in a cool action scene straight out of an 80鈥檚 buddy cop movie, but we did have a potential problem on our hands since this particular firework was the kind that shoots balls of colorful pyro.聽 Not quite a big, show-closing mortar-type, but still kind of big.聽 We couldn鈥檛 exactly grab it to point it upward, so we basically had to watch as it shot sideways across the grass and exploded against some wooden boards around the ball diamond.聽 I鈥檓 not sure if they left big black burn marks behind because this was the dead of night, but I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised.

Believe it or not, kids, this was 鈥榝un鈥� to us back in our day.聽 Oh sure, today鈥檚 ultra-PC, overly-sensitive society might label it 鈥榤oronic鈥� and 鈥榥ear-death as one could be鈥�, but hey, we lived to tell the tale.

For this week, that鈥檚 been the Ruttle Report.