Li'l Adults
I find myself sharing the sidewalk and various places of business or public interest with a number of small children. The difference between children in New York and children in other parts of the country, I find, is the rate of maturity. It may not be this way compared to every part of the country, but it seems that children in New York grow up at a faster rate than other children I have encountered.
Children in New York have to learn things more quickly; they have to be able to think on their feet more often than kids elsewhere. They have to be able to pick up on things like mass transit, navigating as complex a city as New York, complete with trains, traffic, and interlocking bodies of water.
Not only that, children in New York have to put up with all the people here, and that much interaction with others has got to accelerate their development.
New York children's advanced development is evident in their behavior exhibited in the street, their manners, their dress, their language.
In my neighborhood, children come running around corners, chasing after their friends, dropping derogatory terms here and racial slurs there. Just like grown-ups! They have discussions about scooters, they debate and analyze outcomes of footraces. They carry around little suitcases, and sometimes even wear shirts and ties, just like adults would.
And just like adults, some even work at the neighborhood grocery store.
Kids definitely grow up faster here.
The other day, I was in a store shopping for things that only legal adults can drink, when a child of elementary age approached me, and began soliciting me about whatever was on the pamphlet she was trying to hand me. I think it was some kind of youth ministry program.
At any rate, the young girl did not hesitate to get right up in my face, thrusting this pamphlet directly into my field of vision, and, I might add, blocking my view from anything else. When I proceeded to ask her about what it was she was offering me, she got very flustered with me, telling me I was wasting her time and that "either you're going to take one or not." That much was true. I did not take one. And she stalked off.
I refuse to believe, though, that I was wasting her time, when she so rudely interrupted my beer shopping to hand me an unrelated piece of paper.
Ah, kids these days, they grow up so fast. Even at such a young age, they are already fine, upstanding, inconsiderate New Yorkers.
Children in New York have to learn things more quickly; they have to be able to think on their feet more often than kids elsewhere. They have to be able to pick up on things like mass transit, navigating as complex a city as New York, complete with trains, traffic, and interlocking bodies of water.
Not only that, children in New York have to put up with all the people here, and that much interaction with others has got to accelerate their development.
New York children's advanced development is evident in their behavior exhibited in the street, their manners, their dress, their language.
In my neighborhood, children come running around corners, chasing after their friends, dropping derogatory terms here and racial slurs there. Just like grown-ups! They have discussions about scooters, they debate and analyze outcomes of footraces. They carry around little suitcases, and sometimes even wear shirts and ties, just like adults would.
And just like adults, some even work at the neighborhood grocery store.
Kids definitely grow up faster here.
The other day, I was in a store shopping for things that only legal adults can drink, when a child of elementary age approached me, and began soliciting me about whatever was on the pamphlet she was trying to hand me. I think it was some kind of youth ministry program.
At any rate, the young girl did not hesitate to get right up in my face, thrusting this pamphlet directly into my field of vision, and, I might add, blocking my view from anything else. When I proceeded to ask her about what it was she was offering me, she got very flustered with me, telling me I was wasting her time and that "either you're going to take one or not." That much was true. I did not take one. And she stalked off.
I refuse to believe, though, that I was wasting her time, when she so rudely interrupted my beer shopping to hand me an unrelated piece of paper.
Ah, kids these days, they grow up so fast. Even at such a young age, they are already fine, upstanding, inconsiderate New Yorkers.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 11:02 AM
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