Okay, just one quick fic question...

[trinityofone]

...and then I am showering going to the library, I swear.

On the left you have: ages where you make up elaborate fantasy stories in your head and play pretend and run around thwacking your friends with sticks.

On the right you have: ages where you're starting to feel the first stirrings of sexual awakening, (mostly) innocent and vague, yes, but there.

In the wacky Venn diagram that is this story, where do those two circles intersect? How old are you?

Remember: also, you are a boy.

I was going to say 12, because at 12 I think I was still semi-convinced that I could still find the wardrobe to Narnia, but also I was crushing on Harrison Ford like mad and cutting his picture out of magazines and stuff.

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts.

(And sticks are still TOTALLY the best toys ever, OMG.)

Comments

Refrigerator box, I mean: big-time fort.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Let's see... there was a real generation gap between the parents. There could be only a five-year age difference between the adults, and their values would be completely changed.

You knew you had one of the "new" generation beatnik parents when:

- They had wheat bread instead of white, and margarine instead of butter. Their kids said words like "nutrition." For normal families white Wonder bread and tuna casserole was just fine.

- The kid had a lot of rules no one else had. For example, the weird parents restricted the TV-time, or didn't like their kid to watch certain violent shows. (There was a lot of parental disapproval about "The Dukes of Hazzard" being gratitously violent so that was the usual off-limits show.)

- Mom had lots of ideas about ERA or the "Equal Rights Ammendment." She didn't go to PTA or the local church but she was in therapy. And talked about it. A lot.

- The parents fought a lot rather than keeping a calm plastic exterior.

- Their kids were totally disinterested in smoking/pot/what-have-you even though they had easy access to it. It was what their parents did, so they didn't care.

- Their kids were on their own a lot more than most kids, and so while they were given a lot more rules to follow, they had to self-mandate. It was ironic but true that the very parents who interfered most in their kids' lives were around the least and much more self-involved. Mostly these kids hung out at their friends' houses.

Let's see, other Norman Rockwell-but-not aspects of the late 70s... oh yes. The ice cream trucks were everywhere, and kids saw nothing wrong with buying ice cream in front of their friend if they could get money for ice cream and their friend couldn't. So buying ice cream for your buddy (especially if mom didn't prompt you?) was the height of generosity.

But really, the kids from "normal" families really felt sorry for the kids with the "weird" parents.

Icarus