[The Lone Ranger]

At my high school, in rural North Carolina, half the pick-up trucks in the student parking lot had gun racks -- and guns in them. But no one would have dreamed that somebody might have a reason for taking one into the school. Guns were for hunting.

And, of course, every male carried a knife at all times. It would have been ... weird ... not to. Once, during my senior year, the vice-principle walked into the classroom and said, "I need to cut some cord; could I borrow someone's knife?". Every male student -- myself included -- immediately reached into his pocket to haul out a knife.

I rather strongly suspect that that there are no guns on the campus today -- unless they have an armed security guard or two patrolling the halls, which, alas, is not out of the question. And I'm sure that knives of any kind are strictly forbidden too.

Remarkable how much things change, and how quickly.



On a similar note, when I was 12, I thought nothing of getting up at sunrise on a Summer's day and wandering for miles over hill and dale, not coming home until sundown. If my parents thought this was odd or alarming, they never let on. They knew perfectly well -- as did I -- that if I'd hurt myself, I had only to get to the nearest house. They'd have known exactly who I was and would have taken me in immediately and called my parents. Sometimes one of my sisters would accompany me, and sometimes one of them would wander off into the woods by herself for a time, though none of them was half so interested in wandering the woods and fields as I was.

I can scarcely even imagine any of my sisters giving any of my nieces or nephews such freedom to roam today -- and I don't blame them for it.



[To this day, I always have 2 knives on me at any given time -- one is part of a "Leatherman" tool, and the other is a lockblade. They're tools; it would never occur to me to think of them as weapons. I also carry a small flashlight on me at all times. It's not unusual for me to use 2 of these items -- or even all 3 of them -- on a given day.]