A stroll down memory lane...a good lesson learned.

[Tripton]

I am only 26, and I used to carry a SAK to school all the time. It was a small school, but still...cannot do that anymore.

I also remember putting that same Victorinox in the security bin at the airport so I didnt set off the metal detectors. They would just pass it back to me, like it was a wallet or whatever.

I had one of the early AO Kershaws in the 90's too, remember the security at the St. Louis Arch passing it around, just to look at it. They all thought it was cool!

 

[flashlife]

Who ever heard of it? Weren't automatic knife laws a reaction to teen violence in the 1950s?

Teen suicide rates are up since the 1950s, but they have been on a decline since the mid-'90s. That does seem to be getting better, not worse.

I don't recall hearing a lot of approval of the alleged "pregnancy pact", and in any case, it appears there is little evidence that such a pact actually existed.

It's just personal experience, but I still run into a whole lot more decent people than creeps.

Actually, the auto-knife ban of '58 was a knee-jerk reaction to the "perceived" threat posed by teen gangs, primarily fear-mongered by movies such as "Blackboard Jungle", etc. I knew quite a few guys who carried autos back then, but never heard of any of them stabbing anyone.

You don't hear much ADULT approval of the school-girl 'pact', but when 14-16 year-olds 'high-five' each other on learning their pregnant ("...just like Jaimie Lynn Spears!! - Whoo-Hoo !!!")..wellllll....

In spite of all this, I agree, Jennifer, that there are more decent folks out there than creeps.

My point was essentially that it's probably a tie when we talk about the "good-old-days vs today". Some things today are much better, and we applaud them...some things are much worse, and we lament them.

MikeH

 

[crustaceanmick]

Nice story jd. Brings back fond memories.

IIRC, the penny started out with the French many years ago. Superstition was that a gift of a knife or anything sharp might "cut" the friendship or cause harm to the recipient. So the penny was offered back to the giver as payment, creating a transaction, eliminating the "gift".

I gave my girlfriend a very small (charm bracelet size) ornamental knife as a HS graduation (1972) gift. A few days later she gave me a penny and told me about this superstition. (didn't know it was French)

A few months later when she left for college on the opposite coast, she gave me a band aid!

 

[crustaceanmick]

Lots of food for thought here. I don't think any one generation has it better than another. Yes, we have access to knowledge that's downright amazing, but there is a dark side to that as well. Pornography, child predaters, etc; We have a whole slew of moral issues to deal with along with the technology. Some generations definitly had it harder physically, but people are stregthened by it. Just because I can sit at the PC and use a remote for my tv doesn't really mean much as far as character goes. It's great that many childhood diseases have been eradicated but our grandparents didn't know about aids. With mechanical things you don't gain something in one area without sacrificing in another. I believe life in general follows the same rules.

Very wise.


"Is it not important to ALWAYS maintain ones balance, Grasshopper?" - Master Po

"He thought of himself in balance, and he KNEW he was." - Moody Blues

 

[rnr]

Hi, this is my first post in this forum.
I'm quite impressed by the fact that knife using habits are beginning to fade and some people consider knife as a weapon not as a tool even in the U.S.
I live in Japan where almost all knives are thought of as weapon.
Even a small pocket knife can cause a serious trouble with policemen especially in Tokyo.
It is very sad that such a useful and beautiful tool is supposed to be an evil existence.

I myself learned how to use knives from my father at the age of 10, about 30 years ago. He gave me a san-mai construction Higonokami, a once popular cheap knife in Japan.

Fujita-san. dozo yoroshiku. Steve desu. Ie. Heta desu.
It's good to see that some people in Japan realize that knives are tools and the mind is the weapon. Especially when Seki city is a great place for knives.

There are a bunch of us trying to keep the good traditions going with in our family.