Of: how did you respond to "get off my lawn" when younger?

Submitted by tasnyder01 on February 21st, 2019 at 4:21 PM

In recent news, we discovered another tomb of a Pharoah in Egypt. It referenced how "the children of the Nile are not as they used to be."

Made me wonder. Children of the 60s-80s are now in the "I am old enough to scold you for doing things different" generation. But you guys had countless times where parents from the pre-war era demeaned you. "Flower Children", ""Hippies", "Commies", etc.

I think we can all laugh at ourselves. So this may be ironic, but I'm looking for the best responses 50+ y.o. people had to "get off my lawn" when they were mid-twenties. I expect great and sarcastic remarks. ?

Blue and Joe

February 21st, 2019 at 4:29 PM ^

I only just turned 30 but I already have some "kids these days" moments. The thing about it is "kids these days" are different from when we were kids. They are growing up in a different time. Of course they're different. I responded like everyone responds: with angst.

The Maizer

February 22nd, 2019 at 9:13 AM ^

I don't see these types of things as fundamentally different behavior. Young people (really all people) have always done dumb things. The difference now is that the people are all doing the same dumb thing that everyone sees because of internet culture rather than many different dumb things that no one sees.

titanfan11

February 22nd, 2019 at 7:15 PM ^

Doesn't that make our (I'm 38) dumb things better, since we had to be somewhat original?  We didn't have any YouTube videos to tell us to

-treat moving cars as the targets from the old school NFL QB challenges and throw snowballs

-gather all the cans from recycling bins and set up rows across local streets

-take someone's mailbox to use as a "bag" for Trick-or-Treating

Yeah, we've all done dumb things.  

ST3

February 21st, 2019 at 4:33 PM ^

There was one elderly lady in my neighborhood who would yell the equivalent of “get off of my lawn.” She lived in a condo and had no lawn. We were all scared shitless of her and never ventured anywhere near her lawn. One time, a football ended up going over her back fence. We sorrowfully said goodbye to that ball and found a new game to play.

drjaws

February 21st, 2019 at 7:12 PM ^

Had an old couple next door as a kid.  The Hipps.  Always yelled at us for everything they could.  Just mean crotchety old couple.  

They must have had tote full of tennis balls, hockey pucks, frisbees, baseballs, basketballs and footballs.  Seemed like twice a week something was lost over that fence.

Magnus

February 21st, 2019 at 4:38 PM ^

I was a real rebel:

I just didn't go on other people's lawns. 

It was a pretty easy skill to learn, because I looked at where our property ended and I wasn't stupid.

Booted Blue in PA

February 21st, 2019 at 4:41 PM ^

That neighbor lived between us and my friend's family.... if someone missed a ball while playing catch and it went on her lawn, she'd yell when we retrieved it...

being smart ass kids, we started playing catch OVER her lawn.... Until my dad saw what was happening.  Her yelling wasn't that bad after all.

 

Bodogblog

February 21st, 2019 at 4:46 PM ^

Lawns are dumb.  Let the dandelions grow, bring on the clover.  The weird thing is having a perfectly manicured lawn, with all the fertilizer and insect killers it brings.  Cut it in the spring sure, but give the dandelions some time.  They're actually quite pretty.  When it gets warmer, cut less often, which lets the bees at the clover.  Tell your neighbors you're doing it if you feel weird about it.  You'll be fine, it's more natural, better for the environment, and less work and cost for you. 

B-Nut-GoBlue

February 21st, 2019 at 6:29 PM ^

I read something last year, "we" in this/as a country spend more on lawn care than our government does on the military, annually.  Fucking ridiculous.

I'm very close to and already leaning towards allowing wild grass, etc. to grow in our yard and leave a ring of suburban grass around it and "cut" it so as to constitute keeping something of a "lawn".

Jasper

February 21st, 2019 at 4:58 PM ^

Slightly OT: In my first year at Michigan I drove to my Math 115 final from an off-campus location. Roads were awful, traffic was slow, and I wound up with no time to spare. I was going to park on the doorstep no matter what.

The doorstep in this case was a parking lot between the NatSci and Chem buildings (yeah, a long time ago). I had no privileges but decided that a fine/ticket was worth the risk. I took the last open spot.

The exam went well and I emerged to find ... no ticket! As I approached the vehicle, though, I was accosted by a biochem professor(Beyer, IIRC) who was known, I believe, as a likable and approachable guy. Good-natured.

Holy @#$& was that guy angry. It was as though all his frustrations of the past year got released in my general direction. (The lot was still chock-full.) I quietly took my lumps and was very apologetic.

Long-winded way of saying I promptly got off the lawn ...

 

B-Nut-GoBlue

February 21st, 2019 at 5:05 PM ^

I threw dogshit on his garage.

I had a real gem of a pair that lived right next door, 25ft, from us growing up.  They were nice initially when my parents moved in but something happened or they thought happened... and a "feud" was on until my parents moved away in '05.  Anywho, my parents and brothers endured the asshole(s), as did I, but one day with my friend over, knowing full well my neighbor was an asshole as a 4th or 5th grader, I decided to fling our pet Boxer's pile of shit on the wall of his garage that faced our house.  I was pleased with myself and the decision.

An anecdote to help paint the picture of how miserable a people they were....my older brother brought a duck home from school( back then you took class pets home...the iguana came once!) and we were outside with it/him and he flew around a little bit and apparently "chased" the neighbor lady to the mailbox...she naturally called the police.  Because a duck followed her to the mailbox.  That was probably one of ten times the police were called on my brothers over the course of the 80s/early 90s (for truly silly things, boys will be boys and all but nothing serious ever occurred).

KO Stradivarius

February 21st, 2019 at 5:06 PM ^

Back in the early 70’s we’d play sports in the streets- who didn’t at the age of 10 or so? Once when we were playing soccer, the ball went on Mr H’s lawn and the old man, Red, must've been watching us and waiting for his chance.  He burst out of his front door bitching at us "damn kids", etc. He may have actually said “get off my lawn”...

He then proceeded to try and kick the ball far away down the street, except he was wearing dress shoes so his plant foot slipped and he fell flat upon his ass on his nice lawn in front of about 8 of us. Hilarity and guffaws ensued. Priceless.  His face was so red!

Tunneler

February 21st, 2019 at 5:18 PM ^

Anybody who was pissed about someone stepping on their grass, obviously does not have enough things to worry about.  I would usually try to help them out with that.  Nothing too malicious though, maybe some soaped windows, or a bag of dogshit on their porch.

MGoFunkadelic

February 21st, 2019 at 5:23 PM ^

a couple years ago a woman went bat shit crazy on me for standing on her lawn in the pouring rain waiting for my dog to take a shit.  literally had the bag on my hand. dog was circling about to drop a load when she came flying out of her car that had just pulled up and started just screaming at me.  now this "lawn" was literally crispy dead grass and dirt/mud and it was the middle of a rain storm and i was going to pick up the deposit.  i looked at her like she was nuts and just moved on to the next yard and finished our business, picked up the shit and kept walking but that seemed absolutely unhinged to me.

JFW

February 21st, 2019 at 5:34 PM ^

I was born in '73. Most of the time I got crap it was *from* the old hippies/flower children. But mainly it was for being lame LOL and not that generations version of 'woke' enough. 'What kind of world do you want to live in?' 'One that has a job for me so I can have a family and make enough money to do cool things with them. I'd love a big boat...' 

 

'THAT"S ALL!"

greatlakestate

February 21st, 2019 at 5:37 PM ^

I grew up in a small town-- if an adult asked/told me to do it, I generally did because chances are my dad was in Rotary with them/my mom worked with them/we went to church with them and my transgression was likely to be reported sooner rather than later.

GoBlueGoWings

February 21st, 2019 at 5:45 PM ^

I am 37,I never got "get off my lawn" when I was a kid because I was inside watching TV or in our woods digging a big hole, finding mud to play in after it rained or making a kick ass "fort" with a no girls allowed sign (not that girls would hang around me back then... or now).

I hope I won't be that guy when I get older because I don't care about my lawn now, I don't think I will change.

MGlobules

February 21st, 2019 at 5:48 PM ^

Your sense of history is a little truncated. My parents were the hippies, and they were proud of it. (I'm 62.) I was a punk. And disdained hippies, as all punks did. (We thought the hippies were sellouts, and that was in the last 70s and early 80s). Trust fund hippies came later, and were/are worse. 

If someone told us to get off of their lawn we told them to fuck themselves. That would include hippies. (I lived in SF in the Haight toward the end of the hippy golden age--a bunch of us who came out of the RC and art school migrated there, and to Oakland. The vanguard punks did things like fight gentrification. We thought our music was better but most of it wasn't.)

I agree that the Baby Boomers have pretty much wrecked the world. (You didn't say that but a lot of people do.) Too busy seeking status and pleasure, too. . . hypocritical. Wanted peace and love like everyone else but never got around to making it happen. (Credit to my parents, though; before they became hippies they were civil rights workers and activists--THOSE people were powerful folks.)

I guess my point is that I grew up telling older people to get off my lawn, not young people. And now I think the kids are great, might even save us. I encourage them all I can.