Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be punks

So I was at the gym today wearing what has become my typical gym attire -- even in the summer. You see, Greenville is changing. With the third free-standing Starbucks (to go with at least three more inside other stores) opening soon, g-vegas is becoming a town filled with wanna-be yuppies. It seems to be like Greenville wants to be the next Raleigh and/or Cary so badly. What was once a gritty college town filled with students, recent grads (more than happy to drive their beat-up Honda) and plenty of live music and mom-and-pop restaurants has become a town filled with over-extended spend-frees driving BMWs buying Starbucks three times a day and going to the same eateries in every other down in America (Olive Garden, O'Charlies, Chilis, etc...). The changes have even trickled down to local gyms. In at least three local gyms, the free weights are being whittled away for machines, cardio equipment and juice bars. While there are still a few people in there just to work out, more and more there are those who are in there for some other purpose. I can't figure out what it is. The guys with the gel in their hair and not a drop of sweat. The ladies with the jewelry and makeup. Men who insist on working out in front of an on-high fan. Which brings me to my gym attire (a roundabout way to explain it, I know.) I don't like to work out in a constant cool breeze, sorry. I want to keep warmed up and I want to sweat. So, I work out in a sweatshirt and a hoodie. Today, I was doing arms, and this guy -- seriously -- came up to me and asked, "How can you do arms with sleeves on. You can't see 'em?" I chuckled a bit as I thought he was joking, and then I looked up. The guy had spiked hair and a sleeveless shirt on. Not just a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. I mean one of those tight-fitting shirts that was made with no sleeves. That, ladies and gentlemen, was a punk. A guy who does his entire routine within three feet of a mirror, takes time between sets and flexes to see if anything moves. Probably takes all his first dates to Olive Garden and frequents techno bars, too.

Which brings me to my next point. While the aforementioned fellow was a grown-up punk, adults are enabling an all-new generation of younger punks to emerge. Kids today aren't facing any adversity. There are already Little Leagues that don't keep score, because losing a T-ball game can apparently scar a kid for life. But schools, now, are banning left and right the very basics of playground activities. Dodgeball is already a thing of the past -- I can somewhat understand that. It's a bit hard to defend the hurling of athletic balls at kids' heads. But a school in Colorado has recently banned the game of tag. Yes, the "contact sport" of tag, where someone is "it" and chases after everyone else in order to touch them, thus passing on the "it." A school in Massachusetts recently banned tag along with touch football. Touch football! When I was growing up, we played 15-on-15 everybody-run-out-for-a-pass tackle football. We also got into a barbaric game of smear the queer -- sure, an awful name (even though most of us didn't know what that q-word even was back then). The Massachusetts school said it banned touch football because kids could get injured, citing "accidents can happen." If that's your reason, take down the monkey-bars, merry-go-rounds, swings, seesaws and slides. Let's just have the kids go to an open field and run laps at recess. With Little League games with no score (and no winners or losers) and school yards without the very basics of juvenile joviality, adults today are enabling a generation of kids who are just going to grow up and be punks. And I'm saying "punk" here to avoid using a much harsher term. Sure, the kids will get to grow up without facing adversity or challenge, but when they become adults, they won't be prepared to handle the inevitable failures that we all must face from time to time. What's next, the banning of push-ups because some kids can do more? Let's get rid of tug-o-war, too.