Crawford County, Robinson, Illinois | Today's society makes it more difficult to carry a knife and be politically correct. I still carry a knife, but it is a smaller one than I carried all my life. Years ago we took my Daughter to see Ronald Regan speak at the Illinois State Fair ground. She was about 4 or 5, but I wanted her to say she had seen him. I wasn't thinking, and took my rather large lock blade knife that I used to cut twine out of the baler, cut hogs, and cut up an apple to eat. (just a joke, but I know people who have done that without thinking)
I never thought about a metal detector, but went through one on the way to the bleachers. I put my knife, along with other pocket contents, in a tub for examination as I went through the metal detector. Security got wide-eyed at the knife, and looked at the farmer that was carrying it. He quickly said, "keep that in your pocket". Today nobody would get by with that, and even I would not carry a knife to such an event.
I had a very excited 7th grader come up to me during class break when I was teaching, and pull out his new knife. I quickly turned away, explaining that if I saw that knife I would have to take it from him. Something must have happened later, and ten years after a janitor I was baling for gave me the same lock-back, saying he found it in the boiler room. He said I could keep it, and I planned to return it to the student if I ever remembered who he was. It wasn't unusual when I was in school for a student to show off his new hunting rifle to others in school and then take it home, with every teacher and administrator knowing he had it and it wasn't a threat to anyone. Sounds shocking to say that today. |