RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
RIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TVRIP-TV
2001-04-07
Last week on Seventh Avenue, I overheard a child in a stroller shout at its mother, "Mom you forgot to strap me in!" It reminded me of the time three years ago in the Au Bon Pain at MIT, where I observed a little boy leave his mother as she stood conversing with a friend; walk across the "cafe" to the door; take a seat in his stroller, which was parked there; and strap himself into the seat.
Unfortunately, mothers always seem to neglect these golden opportunities to rip their youngsters from their moorings and swing their strollers into shattered wreckage against the nearest brick surface, while screaming, "Jesus said take up your bed and walk!"
Three years ago, had that first little boy lit up a cigarette, I couldn't have been any more dumbfounded and dismayed. Kids having kids, a social tragedy�well yes, but kids have always had kids. Drivers having drivers, on the other hand, habitual drivers having children they don't train to walk�this was something new and horrible on earth.
Slowly, though, I've gotten used to seeing large-ish children with healthy, functioning limbs being pushed about in strollers. I've overcome the social conditioning of an earlier era, when the only big kids in strollers were "crippled" (as we called it) or dying of "kyin-sah" (as my town pronounced it), and you weren't supposed to stare. I've even gotten fond of giving the kids themselves a hard look, right in the eyes, as a spiritual rebuke�if they're not unconcious from the effects of sugar snacks and pills, that is.