Oh Dear...I have been yelled at!

The other day while walking I saw that a group of young people had scraped the ice on a local pond and were skating about, some with hockey sticks and others practicing spins etc. I was charmed . I took out my phone to capture the scene with a vague thought I could post it on Facebook as the Canadian response to ....If life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.

While I was fumbling about to get my phone to stop taking selfies I heard one of the youth yelling and skating towards me yelling “why are you taking pictures of us”? Naively I stated that I liked what there were doing and wanted a picture. This apparently was not a sufficient reason and he yelled... “you can't take pictures of us, we are MINORS”. Being as clueless as I am in such situations I said F.O., I'm an old man, not a pervert and carried on my way somewhat annoyed, a lot confused and a bit rattled. Thoughts of posting the picture on Facebook were clearly gone.

Later in the day chatting with my daughter, aka cultural translator, she explained that the conversation kinda reflects what you get when a generation is raised to be afraid of strangers and hyper aware of the perverse nature of a few people. Warnings from hyper vigilante parents and the fact that horrible events in Bunch Grass Saskatchewan or Pasadena California are equally likely to make international news compounds the problem.

This is no longer the world in which I hitch hiked or gave rides to strangers. I guess I just forgot.

Today, a much nicer day, I came across a similar scene with more rinks, more people and even some adults. If the pics are OK, they are going on Facebook.