Believe it or not, the television was not too old when I was a little kid in New York City. In the years before going to school, I’d spend the evening watching cowboy shows where the hero, like Gene Autry, would wrap up the half-hour segment with a gunfight and take all the bad guys into custody. On occasion, my father would caution me that all was not that way in the world.
When I grew old enough to walk to school, learn to stop at the crosswalk, and learn the difference between words that sounded the same, like minor and miner. I learned that life in New York City, at least, was not like Gene Autry’s west. I grew old enough to have afternoon chores – sweep the sidewalk, help [ take out the cinder barrels and check the incinerator chutes in the apartment building for items that couldn’t go into the incinerator. My duties on the street gradually introduced me to “disturbances in the Force” – OK, we didn’t know about that stuff in those ancient days. But it was the same thing.
I learned about the local gangs and their fights over territory, the local
“bagman” who made his rounds collecting the proceeds from the numbers racket at the corner candy store. and about thieves and theft.
My father gradually relayed a bit of good information to me. Most people aren’t evil. But they will learn to get away with whatever they can, unless they learn that there are reasons why they shouldn’t try. It’s why you have locks on the doors, carry a knife even if you have no intention of using it, and let the local thugs know that your stoop was not their clubhouse.
My father also pointed out that while the individual could be deterred, it was groups that you had to watch out for. People who encourage, protect, and assist. The gang, the crooked company, the rotten cop who took bribes, the mafia, and, by extension, politicians.
So there you have it. I eventually learned that life was not Gene Autry riding out of town at the end of a half-hour segment with all the bad guys corralled in jail, and thinking about the errors of their ways. On the other hand, my father believed that most people learned early that it wasn’t wise to engage in harmful activities, but it paid to be wary.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
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Sounds like his lessons still apply.
More than ever.
Your dad was a wise man. My dad on Roy Rogers, “He’s no Gene Autry.”
And he was right!
Absolutely.
That move from Gene Autry tying everything up in half an hour to learning the candy-store bagman’s route is such a vivid way to mark the end of childhood certainty. Your father’s distinction — that you can deter an individual, but it’s the groups who encourage and protect each other you really have to watch — is hard-won wisdom that sticks. As a parent I think a lot about how to pass that nuance on without scaring the wonder out of them.
you do it slowly, it’s not a fast and hard reveal, that leads to cynicism in my opinion, and I always preferred my kids to think about how you trigger the trap without getting stuck in it.
A lesson for centuries. Thank you for sharing.
You had a wise father, he prepared you for the “good the bad and the evil”. In real life 🙂
I didn’t always appreciate it at the time…but as I got older his insights prooved correct.