some gay rat @allergyriddenrat - Tumblr Blog

lying to people in positions of power (landlords, rental agencies, employers) to get what u want (a flat, a job, whatever) is cool and u should do it more often.

vintageandroid

i made a post like this before but I can't find it now. so. I'll just redo it.

What's the first "big news story" you remember from when you were a kid?

It's something I love to ask mixed-aged groups sometimes because I think it's really interesting to see the responses. I've gotten answers from the Olympics of [whatever year] to Watergate to more recent stuff from my niblings.

My first news thing I remember is the OJ Simpson trial. I vaguely remember watching the news with my grandparents before that, but that's the first story I remember, in part because my second grade teacher had us go play so she could watch the verdict 😂

surroundedbybooks

This hits way different when you are a Tumblr Old and also had family in the newspaper business. A lot of the Big News Things I could think of are less about the event and more about knowing that Dad was going to be working late. Including a time a story broke when we were heading out of town for vacation, he got the call about a famous person's untimely death while we were heading out, dropped me and my friend off with Mom, and turned right back around and headed back to the city. (Not naming specific names or years, as it'll dox me)

I have vague memories of Geraldine Ferraro being Walter Mondale's running mate, and the excitement of having a woman trying to be Vice President. In sort of the peripheral way young kids are aware of Grownups Talking About Politics, except we watched her give a speech on TV.

libraryogre

Challenger Disaster is the one I am most sure of. I was very young when Reagan was shot, so I think most of the "memory" I have of that was acquired later, but I definitely remember the Challenger... and I confirmed it came before the Reykjavík Summit, which I remember an extremely optimistic commercial about.

allergyriddenrat

kid me was banned from watching or listening to the news because she was terrified that kidnappers and murderers existed and didn't want to be buried in someone's backyard

#shocking -kid with anxiety banned from the news

yossyislandd

shoots you with my cupid arrow but you lowkey die

i-am-a-fish

How many vampires do you think you could take

four

glorious-spoon

While I sort of get the impulse, it does always get my back up when people talk about something like Animorphs with this attitude of 'omgggg remember these books, how on EARTH were we allowed to read these books, they're so grim and dark and violent and tragic, no adults could possibly have known what they actually contained or they'd have been banned.'

And like. Allowing for the fact that there absolutely are adults who think every distressing topic ever should be banned from children's literature - they're children's books. You were allowed to read them when you were a kid because they were written for kids. Bridge to Terabithia is also a children's book. So is Where the Red Fern Grows and Old Yeller and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and The Giver and loads of other books that deal with heavy, difficult topics. It is appropriate and good for children to have books about these things that are tailored to their reading levels and it genuinely really bugs me when people act like they're somehow not really for kids because bad things happen in them or they end tragically.

bisexual-engineer-girl

I used to go on Wikipedia and read about people dying because when I was three I wanted to know what it was like to die (but did not want to die myself)

jewish-joy

Last year, I befriended a Catholic seminarian. We've gotten to be pretty decent friends. Seeing as he was staying in town for the summer and I wasn't, I entrusted him with caring for my plant.

He did a wonderful job, but as he was returning my plant to my custody, he explained "I watered her every other day, I gave her new dirt, moved her into the sunshine, prayed the rosary-"

"What?"

He looked at me, confused. "Isn't she a plant you pray with?"

"No," I said slowly. "She's a prayer plant. That's the... colloquial name of the plant."

Upon seeing his stricken face, I realized something went wrong. Turns out, this entire time, he's been including my plant in on his prayers and leaving her near icons.

Listen, totally cool. My plant becoming Catholic is a great deal for her not dying over the summer. But now I must navigate this interfaith household. Keep me in your thoughts.