Violent Acres

I had intended to write a couple of follow up articles to Childhood: Then and Now, but something terrible happened. That damn article made it to the front page of reddit and got hundreds of comments. Which, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. I just made the mistake of reading said comments.

I should have known better.

Generally, I avoid reading feedback about my site like the plague. First of all, I’m boring. Second of all, it usually gives me a headache. I’ve been far too busy lately to nurse a throbbing skull.

Don’t get me wrong, most everyone said something humorous (intentionally or not) and a handful even managed to come up with logical or insightful anecdotes/arguments.

But the idiots always bray the loudest, don’t they?

One dipshit even implied that all my stories must be fake because I periodically write about happy memories of my childhood/Mother/Home life. Apparently, these stories don’t make sense when peppered with stories of child abuse. Oh, gag me.

Can I please point out the obvious? If my life had been a nonstop horror show, I probably would have committed suicide by now. Seriously, let’s be real here.

Secondly, am I the only one who understands that people aren’t characters? Am I the only one who knows the difference between the two? Please God, tell me I’m not.

There is no such thing as a virtuous hero. There are no witty sidekicks. Real life doesn’t contain crazed super villains who exist only to kick puppies and give the star of the show a believable character arc. Reality and fiction are two totally different things. People are complex. Situations aren’t black and white. There is a spoon, people! THERE IS A GODDAMN SPOON!

The reason I can write about both good and bad memories of my Mother is because I have both good and bad memories of my Mother. She is not a character in a movie. She is a living, breathing human being. Thus, she is made up of shades of gray just live everyone else on this godforsaken planet. I know, I know. Shame on her for not following the fucking script.

My Mother totally lacked the ability to be physically affectionate with her children. Never in my life has my Mother kissed or hugged me. As a child, when crossing the street she would refuse to take my whole hand in hers. Instead, she would distastefully present me with her pinky finger to clutch. When we made it to the sidewalk, she would snatch it away as if I were a dirty, repulsive thing that caused her physical pain to touch. Now, I can also be kind of weird about touching small children. It just doesn’t feel normal to me.

On the other hand, my Mother never censored me. I could read or watch any damn thing I wanted. When my concerned 1st grade teacher called home after I brought Stephan King’s ‘Carrie’ to sustained silent reading, my Mother snapped at her. “My daughter is not an idiot,” she said, “She knows the difference between fantasy and reality.” I was so proud, I slugged through the entire book with a dictionary carefully balanced on my knee so I could look up the words I didn’t understand. I ended up reading at such an advanced level, I skipped grades in school.

My Mother had an extremely bad temper and almost zero patience for children. Imagined disrespect, loud noises in the morning, a chore done subpar…everything set her off. She would go from completely calm and serene to violently out of control in a split second. Anything within her reach would become a weapon. I was beaten with hot wheel tracks, burnt with hot curling irons, or stabbed with steak knives. In the absence of a suitable weapon, my Mother would simply grab me by the hair and repeatedly slam my head into hardwood floors or walls. I would quickly learn to go limp when she started on me. Crying or struggling always made it worse, so I took my punishments silently and stoically. Today, I have an extremely high tolerance for pain.

My Mother never catered to our dietary whims. When she fed us, she fed us well. Fruits, veggies, foods from every nationality or culture were foisted upon us. Now that I think about it, she really was an excellent cook. It’s a pity she wasn’t in her domesticated moods more often. Either way, though, neither me nor my brother are picky eaters and we have her to thank for that.

My Mother had a hard time finding her own identity; her personality changed with every new boyfriend she acquired. Nothing ever lasted for her and ultimately her romantic relationships would fail and her situational friends would disappear with them. I think…this made her feel very, very low. And when my Mother was feeling low, the only way she knew how to soothe herself was to tear someone else down to her level. Mostly, this was me. She said things to me that I can’t even bring myself to type today. It’s far easier for me, emotionally, to tell you about the time she set my hair on fire. That, at least, is funny in a darkly humorous sort of way. But the way my Mother used to scream at me, for hours on end, viciously slapping my cheeks should I nod off around 2am…no….I can’t find anything funny in that.

My Mother had a talent for taking apart every aspect of your personality, magnifying the bad, and twisting the good until it was bad, too, all in order to replace every emotion you’ve ever had with shame and self loathing. Sometimes my mind would break when she did this to me. I couldn’t hear her anymore. My my mind would be filled with wailing, this god awful wailing, that reminds me of a dying animal whenever I try to conjure up the memory. I would slump over during these times, eyes open but unseeing, with nothing but the sounds of sirens in my ears. I never went to school after a night of this. I needed time to learn to speak again.

I suppose you could read all of these things and come to the conclusion that the bad memories far outweighed the good. Perhaps you’d be right, but that doesn’t mean the good never existed. I guess you could read this and assume I hate my Mother. But you’d be wrong. Hating my Mother for being who she was would be akin to hating a rock for being a rock. It’s an exercise in futility to hate someone for being a product of their environment. If anything, the fact that she could do this to a helpless child just proves the depths of her own despair.

I’m still afraid of my Mother. But if I weren’t, I’d like to give her a hug. I wish I could tell her how sorry I am for whatever happened to her as a child that scarred her so deeply and drove her to this. I wish my Mother could learn how to feel love and empathy and find peace within herself and some semblance of joy in her life. I wish I could help her. But I can’t.

She’s broken. She’s broken beyond repair and it was inevitable that she’d lash out at someone. Secretly, I am glad this person was me. If only because I was able to take it. I like to pretend she picked me for this very reason. I like to think she ripped me apart not because she hated me, but because she knew I was strong enough to put myself back together again. God knows she always raised me to be tough. And if I am anything, I am tough. Tough as nails.

And I have her to thank for it.

When I was a little kid, my parents pushed me out the front door every day.

“Come back when the streetlights come on,” they said.

Oftentimes, my 3 year old brother was sent out with me to tagalong. Of course, I considered this a great imposition. After all, at 5 I was way too old to hang out with babies. Still, I had to take care of him because that’s what older sisters are supposed to do.

Back then, we never dialed phones and set up 2 hour play dates. Instead, we’d simply knock on our friend’s doors and say, “Is so&so allowed to come out and play?”

Of course they were.

When we got a good group together, we’d play baseball or kickball in the street.

Yes, in the street.

When the cars rounded the corner, we’d scurry away as fast as we could. We’d use a whiffle ball instead of a real ball in order to prevent hurting anyone’s car. After that, we’d have a squirt gun war. No one checked the temperature on the Internet to make sure it was warm enough to get wet.

Fortunately, no one got sick or died.

Some days, we’d go exploring in the woods. Our minds full of fantastical stories of bad guys chasing us, we decided we must build a tree house. So we gathered up scrap pieces of old wood, rusty nails pulled out of rotting pieces of equipment, and a hammer someone nicked from their Father’s toolbox. Then we’d nail this crap to a tree. Once the rickety house was complete, we’d climb up in it, careful to hold on to the branches in case the floor gave out beneath us. Then, we’d muse to ourselves that we had not built it high enough.

We built ramps in parking lots and jumped them with every toy we had that sported wheels. Skateboards, bikes, roller skates. We didn’t have helmets or kneepads or elbow pads. It didn’t matter. Sometimes we’d fall and rub the skin completely off of our bodies. Nobody cared.

We’d eat berries and apples from strange trees. We’d ride our bikes 6 miles to the park, alone. And not just any park, either. We went to parks with monkey bars higher than our Dad’s heads and dangled our legs over cement. We sat in puddles full of oil and water and swam in water so dirty it might as well be called sewage. In the summertime, we’d go 6, 7, 8 hours at a time without laying eyes on our parents.

And we survived.

Hell, we didn’t just survive. We flourished.

Not a single one of us was overweight; we all had little muscles popping out here and there. We were brave, too. Little badasses. There was no way a perv was going to kidnap us. In fact, we kept little sticks we had sharpened on the sidewalk in our pockets, just in case. Homemade shanks. Sometimes we got lost or hurt, sure. But we knew the difference between a creepy adult you should steer clear of and a responsible adult you could ask for help.

And not one of us died. Not one.

Unfortunately, things have changed and I’m inclined to believe it’s not for the better. I cannot stand how cowardly, weak, and coddled children have become. Children twice the age I was back when I was running the streets with a 3 year old brother in tow have 1/8th the confidence and capability.

Last week, I went to target with a 10 year old and an 8 year old. We stopped in the toy section for a moment because I remember what it was like to walk the isles and dream. (As opposed to today where children walk the isles and demand shit until they get their every heart’s desire)

I said to the children, “I’m going to go look the bath towels. If you want to stay here and look at the toys, I’ll be back to get you in 10 minutes.”

As a child, I wouldn’t have even acknowledged this was a big deal. It was commonplace for me to split from my parents in department stores. They always looked at boring shit and I had a Christmas list to write.

“No, we’ll just stay with you,” the children nervously tittered.

“You want to look at bath towels?” I asked, “Are you sure? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay and look at the toys…or maybe cross the isles and look at the electronics?”

“No, we’ll just stay with you.”

I can’t stand it anymore. Kids aren’t normal! They have no childhood anymore. They just have one never ending, confidence crushing, adventure less, schedule. They have self esteem, (whatever that means) but no actual accomplishments.

So I came up with a plan.

I gave the children $20. “This is for cleaning up the yard,” I said.

Then, we went to the mall. As we stood by the pizza place in the food court, I approached them with a little proposition.

“You guys are free to go spend your money, but I’m not coming with you.”

They blinked their eyes, confused. “Where will you be?”

“I’ll be in the boring stores and I don’t plan to step foot in a single toy store. So if you want to spend that $20, you’re going to have to go it alone.”

The children were torn between the desire to spend the money that was burning a hole in their pocket and their preference to remain in the company of adults at all times. Finally, they hesitated and I knew I had them.

“We got to lay down some ground rules, though, before we split up. The first one is that you stay together no matter what. The second one is you do not leave this mall under any circumstance without me…not even with another adult. The last one is we meet back here at this pizza shop at exactly 3:30pm.”

I paused briefly when I realized that neither one of them was wearing a watch. Then I thought to myself, fuck it.

“If you need to know what time it is, you can ask any clerk working behind the counter of any one of these stores. If you need directions back to this pizza place or to a restroom, you can ask them that, too. I want you to mind your manners, don’t break or steal anything, no fighting, no screaming, no running, and no idiocy. You got that?”

They nodded their heads carefully.

“Alright then, go. Have fun.”

I watched them walk away until they got lost in the crowd. For a moment, I felt completely satisfied. They’re finally learning independence, I told myself.

But that lasted only a moment. Not more than 5 minutes after they walked out of my sight, I found myself choking on my fear.

What if they get lost? Fall down? Get into trouble at one of the stores? What if someone sees them walking alone and calls the police? Ten and seven is plenty old enough to walk around a mall, but people are nuts now. Nuts. And what if they’re right? This is a safe neighborhood. Not a single child has been kidnapped here in my lifetime. Crime is low. No gang violence. This is a safe neighborhood! But still…but still…but still.

I resisted the urge to track them down and tell them I changed my mind. If I had I would have invalidated every bit of courage they had displayed in walking away. So, I let them be.

And at exactly 3:15, I was at the pizza shop waiting for them. If they are even 5 minutes late, I will go looking for them. Get on the intercom or something, I nervously told myself.”

But they weren’t late. At 3:30 on the nose, they showed up, cheeks red with excitement, with a bag of spoils wrapped around their arms. They had an adventure. They had a great time. They walked with a bit of a swagger now. Children of the world; little bad asses.

I knew the answer the second I saw them strutting, but I asked anyway, “Did you have a good time?”

Their answer was enthusiastic.

Of course they had.

Of course they had.

No one died. Instead, they experienced a bit of pure, undiluted, childhood.

A couple of nights ago, I was thumbing through the channels on my TV set when, resigned and bored, I briefly settled on American Idol. A contestant, whose name I do not know because I don’t actually follow the show, was in the process of singing ‘Man in the Mirror’ by Michael Jackson.

Not 10 second into the performance, I muttered to the television screen, “Better kick it up a few notches, asshole.”

Said asshole mewed and whined a few more verses in an attempt to make the song sound pretty. For some strange reason, this annoyed the shit out of me.

Losing my admittedly erratic and often irrational temper, I howled at the screen, “Jesus Christ, man! Will you sing that song with some passion please! Don’t you know what that song is about?”

If anyone reading right now blinked and answered, “Changing the world via charity?” let me take this moment to tell you exactly how naïve and incorrect you are. Learn to read between the lines, people.

“Man in the Mirror,” by Michael Jackson is about diddling little boys. I’d bet money on it.

Don’t think I was always so enlightened. I’ll admit, when it first came out I was also fooled. I bought the lie. I, too, bobbed my head to the beat while thinking to myself, “Wow, Michael is tired of being a rich asshole and now he wants to give to charity and shit. What a fucking humanitarian!”

Oh, Michael, you tricky bastard! In retrospect, it’s pretty obvious that you had just molested your first little boy and felt a twinge of guilt. Much like a Catholic priest, I’m sure you thought covertly confessing your sins would stifle your monstrous urges to tongue a prepubescent little boy’s asshole.

By the way, how did that work out for you? Ouch, not so well, eh?

For those of you who are still skeptical listen for yourself:

I’m looking at the man in the mirror
And I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and make a change
(And quit molesting kids)
Nanana nanana nananananana

It’s so obvious now, isn’t it?

That’s why watching that contestant softly sing “Man in the mirror” last night was so annoying. Michael Jackson didn’t sing that song; he screamed it. He screamed it as if the pedophilic hounds of Hell were chasing him. And despite the fact that he tossed in a couple of garbage lines about starving children (Starving for HIS COCK), he sang it like a man desperate for an appetite for full grown pussy. Or at least barely legal pussy.

Alas, the Gods were not on his side.

Sorry, Michael. American Idol just doesn’t understand you.

I’ll admit it.

Reviewing EJ was a lot of fun. In fact, I had so much fun skewering that self important little bastard, that when someone else offered me cold hard cash to review them, I couldn’t hit the ‘accept’ button quick enough. Two idiots in less than a week? Is it fucking Christmas around here or something?

Silly me, I should have checked out the site before accepting because what I ended up with is Online Casino Reviews. Yes, you read that right. I am supposed to review a site that exists solely to review other sites.

My head hurts already.

The fact of the matter is I am not a degenerate gambler. Ultimately, I really have no fucking clue what makes a good gambling review site. Hell, I don’t even know what makes a good gambling site. Pictures of naked women? Loud music that drowns out the sound of your child’s sobs after you pissed away his college fund? Who fucking knows? I’ll tell you who: degenerates. Sorry, but I am not a part of that club.

So I’m going to go with what I know and say the layout of this site is annoying. I don’t like excessive graphics and logos on a website. That’s my personal preference.

Also, the reviews aren’t interesting. Whether or not they are informative, I can’t say. What I can say is they look like they were all written by retarded chimps. Ideally, if you are going to have a review site, my suggestion would be to find a legible author with just a touch of goddamn personality. This is not entertaining:

The casino software is also state-of-the-art, quick download or no-download version available. Plus an easy to use interface makes this a great choice for casino gambling online.

*Licenced
*Safe and secure credit card transaction

So my advice to this site is to find someone to write more comprehensive and entertaining reviews who can also correctly spell words like ‘licensed.’ In a nutshell, whether you’re reviewing products or other sites, a dash of intelligence and a whole lot of spice goes a long way.

As for whether or not the site is useful or accurate, I have no idea. Perhaps if some of my readers of the degenerate persuasion (I know you’re out there!) are in the mood to take a break from tossing their money in the trash, they will generously check out the site and let me know in the comments. Visit Online Casino Blue Book here.

Brother: V, would you ever willingly give birth to a downs baby?

V: No way in Hell.

Brother: [to husband] What about you? Would you want her to have a downs baby?

Husband: Not a chance. No way, I couldn’t deal with that shit.

V: [to brother] Would YOU want your girlfriend to have a downs baby?

Brother: Fuck no!!!

V: What if your girlfriend was pregnant and when she found out, she really, really wanted to keep it? How could you even talk her out of it?

Brother: I’d push her down the stairs and kick her in the belly 10 times. Then, I would stand over her in the dark as she cried and whisper, “God would have wanted it this way….”