Scary Kids

As a kid I roamed pretty freely throughout the neighborhood. It was the 70s so parenting was much more laid back than it is today. I would walk barefoot a mile up a two lane highway to 7-11 to buy junk food. I went ice-skating on ponds without adult supervision and rode my bike pretty much wherever I wanted.

I was reminded of those days as I cruised up and down the aisle at the local drug store in search of a few items. There was a group of four teenage boys in the school supply aisle. I'm not sure what they were looking for but they were huddled around one item and exchanging ideas about who would use it. I could sort of hear what they were saying from the next aisle, but didn't think much of it.

By the time I made it to the end of the aisle to grab some milk before heading to the cashier I could see the manager casing the school supply aisle. He was bothered by the four boys and was determined to keep them in eyesight. As far as I could tell the boys weren't doing anything wrong, anything other than being teenagers without an adult in a store.

I noticed them walking out as I stood in line waiting for a free cashier. The manager was tailing them.
"And you do know what I mean." He scolded.

As the boys kept heading for the door, the fourth one in the exit line responded, "Actually, I don't know what you mean."

The encounter reminded me of a day many summers ago when friends and I rode our bikes to a local nature center. There were three of us together that day. We parked our bikes near a fence line and started to walk toward one of the nature trails. There was a group of elementary age students at a summer camp nearby. One of the kids spotted us and pointed.

"Look! Teenagers!"

The other kids looked in a mixture of awe and fear. Much like the boys in the store today we had already been labeled as trouble. We didn't understand why, so we just shrugged our shoulders and kept on walking.