Don't Know Much About ...

I sat at the bar with an English chap and had a beer. He is living in the U.S. now; and he has two children in elementary school. He complained how poorly we teach history in this country - especially local history. He said, "It's almost like they don't want to teach history yet because they're not sure how it's going to turn out." I don't know if I agree with that, but it does seem like the kids today don't know much about history. I'm sure my parents' generation said the same thing about us.

They're doing exterior building maintenance at my office. They're caulking, power washing, and replacing window gaskets. There are machines running, people talking, and lots of hammering too. Once, all of the noise stopped. Then - after a brief silence - I heard someone with a flat file trying to make something smaller so it would fit into its place. A file only cuts in one direction, but nobody ever showed this person the proper way to use a file. It was chattering across the workpiece and making an awful racket.

After about ten minutes, my boss walked over and said, "That noise is driving me crazy, doesn't that bother you?"

I said, "Just tell yourself it's a seal barking on a sunny day at the zoo, and then it doesn't sound so bad."

That comment brought a snicker from the other side of the wall and reminded me once again that there is no privacy for cube dwellers; but it also allowed my boss to go back to work without a lengthy discussion of how the fellow on the balcony was abusing his tool. After another five minutes, the barking stopped ... but then the pounding resumed.

My boss turned to me and said, "Yeah? Well what do you call that?"

"Oh that? That's the clubbing."

"What?"

"The clubbing ... of the seals ... the baby seals."

He had no clue! I finally realized he was too young; he had no idea what I was talking about. I suggested he run a web search for "clubbing baby seals" to see what I meant. It's nice to think there is a generation growing up that doesn't know what clubbing seals is all about. Maybe some things in history are better off being forgotten. Maybe some day, a generation will grow up without knowing what a daisy cutter is. Wouldn't that be nice?