abby and eli have old "leave it to beaver" episodes (season 1!) on their netflix and last night, i watched some of the episodes. and no, leaving it to beaver was not better. but leaving it to june and ward (and miss canfield and mrs. rayburn and gus at the fire station and all of the neighbors up and down the street who gave a damn) certainly was.
beaver - and to a lesser extent, wally - got into all sorts of mischief that wouldn't come close to making it on the radar screen today. the "mischief" that they got into is laughable now. and, i guess, it must have been laughable then, too. or else it wouldn't have been a hit t.v. show.
but despite the benign nature of their problems, the village that it took to raise them handled the mischief as if the boys' moral compasses, whole futures, and eternal souls depended on it.
because it did.
these days, parents don't give a rip about anything.
how kids dress or how kids talk, especially to their elders (kids don't even know what an "elder" is anymore) or how they comport themselves (comport?) at school and elsewhere in public is laughed at. it is laughed at. and that's on a good day - when how kids do these things even registers.
whereas, back in beaver's day, these behaviors not only made for a wildly popular half-hour show, they could get a kid grounded. for what felt like life. because it was good for him.
and for the rest of society.
if you think things are better today.......then i don't want to leave anything to you.
